The Tale of Eowyn Woman of the Sword
by The Evil Queen of Nowhere
Summary: Eowyn's life was going just as she wanted it to until she is forced to abandon it. Follow her adventures as she meets Amaden and learns who her friends truely are. She will meet her destiny and ultimately decide the fate of all of Middle Earth.
1. History: So the tale begins

This story is to be the diary of Eowyn. Yes I realize that she has an accent thinger over the 'E' but there is little I can do about it's absence. The people, places, and most of the events in this story belong all to Tolkien and his wonderful genius. I am merely enjoying myself with writing this tale and I hope that you do the same.  
  
NOTE: To let you know in this story you will find Eowyn as Theoden's daughter. I need it that way. Well, anway, have fun reading.  
  
***  
  
Now tell me once more. What made you decide that you wanted to hear my story? I am not so special. I am a woman like all the rest of them. I look like a woman. I have all the required parts to be a woman. I have but two eyes and a pair of hands like the rest of you. So what makes me special enough to have to tell my tale?  
  
I suppose that I have argued more than I should as a woman of Rohan. It is my duty to be submissive, gentle, and meek. Bah! I was never that way and I doubt that I ever shall be. I will use this story to prove to everyone once and for all that I am indeed great the just the way that I am. Infact I will go so far as to wager that by the time I am done with you, you will be in envy of me. Maybe you might go as far as to pick up the sword for yourself. Join me now in my tale as I recall for you my history. The history that formed the path to my present and the indefinite future that is yet to come.  
  
***  
  
The driving force for what I was to become was the man I loathed more than anyone. It is hard to imagine how someone that you could hate so profusely could make you happy. It is as perverse an idea as the man himself. Wormtongue. He was always there. The snake with the visage of a vampire and the reputation of a... I cannot think of a phrase terrible enought to describe him. Fill in the blank yourself and I assure you he sinks lower than that. He is a nasty greasy conniving fool. Oh how I utterly hate him.  
  
You may wonder how in the end he ended up making me into who I am. I promise you that it was not the effect that he intended. He would have given me hell if I had let him. I did not however. You will see what I mean in the end. Allow me to continue.  
  
It was not absolutely clear where he came from but he arrived in our land of Rohan when I had turned twelve. I remember it well. My father, Theoden, King of Rohan and my lord, was sparing with me in the drafty halls of the palace. It had been the third week of my training that my father was giving me and I showed a unprecedented ability with the sword. My father had dubbed me his honorable prodigy nymph sugar. He always had a list of sickening pet names for me, but I endured. Believe me, I endured. They were the least of my problems.  
  
The women of Rohan as in most other places were not usually entreated with encouragement when it came to wielding weapons. I was the lucky one. I loved the sword as dearly as I loved my own mother. My father considered it foolish to not allow me to pursue my favorite past-time. 'Good excerise' he brusquely told the people who questioned my swordplay. 'She should be self- sufficent and besides, she enjoys it.' He never really was that much of a speech maker. He never needed to be. He was always straight to the point. I still admire that. Besides, who could disagree with word of the King? My practice with the sword continued and I was better than most the men in their prime by the time I was sixteen.  
  
But also let it be known that by the time I turned sixteen my privillages to weilding a weapon had been revoked and it all led back to that day I was twelve, and Wormtongue had arrived. My father was bantering with me while I was thrusting forward, blade in hand, and smiling like a fool when the Snake himself entered the hall. He had snuck up behind me as silently as a cat, and when he spoke I dropped my sword, Grime. That is the trusty sword which you may still see still sheathed on my side today.  
  
A simpering voice with a latent arrogance to it was practically sighed in my ear. It makes me shudder still, "Lovely child. Whatever are you doing with a sword? Your features call out with such feminity that would and very well should be embellished by a dress. Do run off and change into one for me. I wish to speak to your father. Scoot off now, woman-child."  
  
How arrogant! Me change into a dress for him??? How dare he? Uckkkkkkk.  
  
From that moment on I could feel nothing but loathing for that man. I had snarled at him and stepped on his foot as if by accident to let him know exactly how I felt about his intimacy and ideals. (Not to much effect seeing that I was a lanky twelve-year-old). I then put my hands over my mouth in mock alarm and pity, "I am so sorry for stepping on you foot, dear sir." I said in an obviously forced tone, "You forgot to allow me the PLEASURE..." The word was very forced, "...of your name."  
  
He did a disrespectful half bow for me. He then turned and did the the same for my father except this time I swore I could hear his nose scraping on the floor. "You must forgive me, dear child. My name is Sir Grima." He turned torwards my father and began sniveling, "I have come from the court of the nearby towns of Rohan to become your loyal advisor and inform you of the needs of your people. There are many dissatisfied nobles who would wish to be heard." Did this guy have a problem with his nose? "That is what I am here for, too be your councilor. That is if you will have me, my lord." He then pursued a most repulsive line of actions which included groveling and kissing my fathers hunting boots. Those boots are something I would never touch, especially not with my mouth, being that they are made of an orc skin scrounged from a raiding party that had been troublesome thirteen years prior. They were definitley not the cleanest things in the world.  
  
I did not leave as to follow Grima's bidding. I wouldn't submit to the will of any man like that in my life! I did leave, but only in disgust. Even now I wish that I hadn't. Perhaps I could have swayed the turn of events that was to follow had I stayed. I might have persuaded my father to not accept the cheating slob into our home. The past cannot be redone. Only recounted.  
  
***  
  
Have you enjoyed the beginning of my tale? The next chapter is already planned as is most of the plot in general. I really like Eowyn. I think that she is my favorite character in the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. Naturally I felt that she needed a tale. Don't you agree? 


	2. History: Snakes and Grime

Chapter Two. Does this please you? I still have no claims to what you see besides the storyline and I probably won't want it anyway before I am done. That does not mean that I am giving it away. It might be crap, but it is my crap.  
  
REMEMBER: The entire Theoden thing is on purpose. It fits into the storyline later on.  
  
***  
  
As the years of my childhood drew near to their close Grima's influence over my father became more evident... and more devastating. The man was bent on controlling Rohan even if he had to hide behind my dear deluded father. All despised Grima if not only for the unjust tyranny he created over the kingdom then they hated him for weakening their once strong and loyal King who had brought them into Rohan's Age of Prospering. For doing such the Snake was dubbed as Grima the Wormtongue by all, and this did not please him.  
  
I never meant to please the Snake. No, not by any means did I. Let me reiterate that I utterly loathed him. I cannot say it enough. I hated him. I named my sword, Grime, after him with the obvious implications. Oh! To run him through would be a pleasure to savor above even an elven bath.  
  
He did indeed do all possible to ruin my life. He stared at me for hours with his small dark beady black eyes. He followed me down empty corridors. He STALKED me. It really frightened me at times, but I could not allow him to see this. He could not best me. I would not allow it. But the last thing I wanted was to have that greasy snake breathing down my neck.  
  
Having corrupted the mind of my father he was in position to strike me down. And oh he found reason to. He was enraged that I spurned him so. One night after a late supper he cornered me in the dark hall outside my bedroom and pushed me against the wall holding my wrists above my shoulders. Quite a feat for his lanky crooked frame, I think of later. He did the strangest and most unnerving thing just then. He sniffed my hair. I could hear him suck air in through his nostrils in a heavy unnatural rhythm. His dark eyes squinted more than is normal, and his forehead wrinkled up in piles of furious folds of sallow skin. His frail bony pale hand swished up in a delicate meticulous fashion and ran its spindly finger down the side of my face and across my neck in a latently malicious gesture.  
  
His cold voice left me trembling with a withheld consternation as he began speaking, "You will be mine, young one. This I promise you. Your wretched schemes to evade me will earn you nothing in the end. When all is set in motion only a few others and I will stand. You! You will be at my knees in the end! This is my oath to you. I will break you." His fingers were cold as they slid down my frame and replaced themselves brusquely on my shoulders.  
  
I practically bore my teeth at him and he snickered in delight as if he enjoyed seeing me become defensive. As if I was a challenge to him.  
  
'I will break you', he had said.  
  
I will run him through before that happens. "You do not scare me, Wormtongue." Oh, but he honestly did.  
  
I was one of the first to call him that to his face. "What, did you call me, you filthy wench?" He raised his arm and ripped it across my cheek. The only other person who had labeled him Wormtongue to his face was drawn and quartered under false charges of treason against the King. He laughed again in a mirthless tone as he stood back, letting me go, and sneered at me, "Oh, what a pleasure breaking you shall be, child. I will leave you now. Remember what I have said." He strode off with his filthy cloak billowing behind him as a light flickered across the stonewalls at the opposite end of the corridor.  
  
I slid down the wall to the cold floors when I was sure he was gone. The light steadily grew brighter illuminating my path but not my mind as my brother, Eomer, tore down the hall.  
  
"He did not bother you did he? I saw him pursuing you and came as soon as dear old da was finished hollering at me." Eomer panted out of breath but relieved to see me in one piece.  
  
"I will kill him." I said with a tone seriousness. Eomer knew what was going on between Grima and I, but he could do just as much about it as I could. Grima had relieved me of my sword, and with good reason. His life depended on it.  
  
I looked up to see my brother begin to smile his elegant but genuine smile of his. "I do not doubt you. Never-the-less you must remain prudent in your decisions. He is a formidable foe, sister."  
  
***  
  
My mother, I love her dearly, but she began calling suitors for me when I turned fifteen. I had no use for men. Not the way she meant for me to.  
  
I hunted with Faramir, youngest son of the Steward of Gondor, for many years. We had been playmates since we were babes. We have always been the best of friends. When my mother brought him to our hall as a suitor I told her she was ridiculous and spirited out of doors with chagrin. He was my companion! We swam in the Entwash together at the cottage our families shared! Our families had been linked together in friendship for generations. The family of Denethor is practically kin to me in my heart.  
  
My mother was insane to think that I would ever consider engagement to Faramir much less any other man. I had a destiny. I was to become the best swordswoman in Middle Earth. Not just in Rohan but the whole of the land from one coast to the other. I would prove my valor and worth. Maybe women might be better welcomed as warriors and in other occupations if I was to prove that I could be an equal force. Men would not get in my way in love or in war.  
  
***  
  
How do you like this chapter? Oh review me, please. Allow me to beg for you. Please!!! Review for me every chapter. Nothing could make me happier. -Teqon Weare 


	3. History: The floor is cold

I would like to thank all who have reviewed my story so far. I do think that now that I have made the mistake with Dear old Theoden's relation to our heroine I will have to fit it into the storyline. I left a note in the first chapter saying this. I am sorry, but it has been a while since I read the books. Sure I saw the movie but still movies don't always hold such minor details well enough to be noticeable. The close relation betwixt the two characters was essential to the story. She has to be close to him. Give me time and let me weave the story. It will all fit together before the end. Thanks. Well keep reading and tell me what you think of it, please. It would make me so very happy. Shall I continue now? Let me remind you once again that all this story's elements belong to Tolkien. I am just twisting things to occupy myself. I love talking. You don't need to listen to me babble so I will start writing this chapter now.  
  
***  
  
I never did tell you how the Snake took away my sword did I? How do you think that he did it? It must be obvious. The only power he had is through manipulation, wasn't it? He slowly turned my father into believing me to be the epitome of all that is evil. Me? Ha. I am far from that, I can assure you. Maybe I am not so good at taking orders, but that doesn't make me evil. My ability to sneak past commands is just one of the things that Wormtongue despised about me. I would not let him win our little game and it irked him more than anything. Oh, how satisfying I found his discomfort! I would purposely let slip an implied comment at dinner about his behavior towards me. It was delightful to see him squirm and fidget in that special leather dining chair of his as everyone else glared at him in absolute disgust.  
  
That was all good and well except that the only person who could be increasingly found exempt from the mass of disgusted people would be my own father. He was entirely under the Snake's trance. Oh hell. It hurt me so much to see my father lose control over his mind. He was such a strong man. He unified the land of Rohan in so many ways. The people adored him just as I did. I cried at first but eventually the tears were replaced with something more filling, vengeance. Wormtongue would not survive the encounter. No, he would not. I am a determined person and I would not be easily swayed.  
  
Wormtongue was furious with my distaste in him, and he turned to desperate means to seek my attention. He committed my father to parting his ways with me. First went the sword. The very thing Wormtongue knew made me who I was, he pilfered from me. He wanted to break my spirit. He failed miserably. To let you know he only succeeded in creating more of it. As a matter of fact the very next time that I saw him stalking me around the dreary halls outside my bedroom after dinner I surprised him. I slowed my pace.  
  
I turned my head around slowly and stared him straight in the eye, daring him to make a move. Glaring at him relentlessly. I even teased him a bit, wrapping my fingers through the tendrils of my soft golden hair, to show him what he could not have from me. It was an arrogant move but I did it nontheless.  
  
He halted altogether and drew in his breath harshly. I spun around and stomped torward at him in a dignified but highly un-lady-like fashion. My hand grabbed for the hilt of the blade that wasn't in the sheath that wasn't on my hip.  
  
He stared me straight in the eye and sneered at me, "Whatever are you looking at, foolish girl? Surely you have better things to worry yourself about than talking my head off with pleasantries?" He was pretending that he wasn't following me! How absolutely repulsive!  
  
"Pleasantries wouldn't suit you, Snake. What would suit you is my blade."  
  
He laughed a high false laugh that hid his fear. I don't understand him at all. Why would he treat me like this if he feared me? "Your blade, child? Women shouldn't arm themselves! How ridiculous! Even our king has told you this." His voice cracked a bit and I was more confused then I have been in a long time. "Now if you wish to speak against our king I will be forced to report you to him. As much as it would kill me, I would do that for my King. My duty is to my king." He stepped forward and grabbed my wrist. I hate to say it but it hurt. He was crushing my wrist with his bare hands!  
  
I took my other hand, calloused from swordplay, and punched the Snake in his jaw as hard as my tall and proud standing father of yore might have done. I did it for my father... in his place. "When my father is rid of you- "  
  
Both of my arms were grabbed again, and I was dragged down the hall being bellowed at by my captor, "-When your father is rid of me? He needs me, foolish girl! You need me! Where would Rohan be without me? You will-" I stopped listening as to my consternation I saw where he was dragging me. My bedroom. I tried to get my arms free but could not. I whipped his legs out from under him with my own but tripped over the wretched dress I was forced to wear. That was the Snake's doing, too!  
  
Damn him. I fell on the cold cobblestone flooring and felt my head scream in pain as it was smashed down. My neck felt like it would break under the man's grasp. My top was torn in the struggle and not unintentionally, either. I threw another punch dizzily but missed. This man was strong for his size. I felt his weight bearing down on me, as I was subdued. I will run him through. I will. Once I get my sword back.  
  
Blood was running in my eyes and it stung. "You can't do anything to hurt me, Snake. Don't you realize that? You can't break my spirit! I will always be Lady Eowyn of the Sword and I shall not be dominated here!" I put my hand to my heart emphatically before I slipped off into the world betwixt sleep and awareness because of the ferocious blow to my head.  
  
***  
  
I awoke in my frighteningly silent bedroom. My mangled blood-stained dress and wrap lay in a neatly folded pile at the end of my dresser. There were deep crimsom blood stains splurted about on my soft white linens in random patterns that drove me crazy to stare at.. There was blood on the flagstone flooring as if I had been dragged across it numerous times. I couldn't possibly have been that bloodied up, could I have? I was only wounded on my head, wasn't I? I don't remember anything else. What happened here? Oh no! What happened? Why is it so quiet here? I shifted in my covers and then slid out of it silently as not to rouse the alert of Wormtongue. Wherever he is. He must be near by. He was. I gasped as I saw him.  
  
At that moment Eomer came through the door carrying a tray with a jug of water on it, a glass, and a towel in his grasp. He looked startled, "You're awake!"  
  
"Yes," I smiled relieved, "Thank you for what ever you did to him." I looked pointedly at the rumpled Snake coiled up in heaps on the floor.  
  
***  
  
Oh do review! Please? Pretty please? Let it be a good review that means something. Or let it be a silly review that means little at all. I want to know that people are reading this story. Thank you again. -Teqon Weare 


	4. History: The Abrupt Removal of Resistanc...

Ah so I think that I should continue this story. Do you enjoy it? It is odd. Very odd. Nevertheless, it is fun. Very fun, mind you. I just figured out that the previous phrase could go for any of the stories I am writing. So which one will I write in? Obviously, you know what I chose because you decided to read it. Do not tell me because I will figure it out. It must have something to do with Lord of the Rings. Well that is only because all of my stories seem to have something to do with Lord of the Rings. Oh maybe I will continue Eowyn's tale. Of course, you already knew that.  
  
***  
  
"So what you are saying, Eomer, is that you just strode up behind that fiend while...? Well I really don't want to think about what was going through that slob's head. But what you were saying is that you knocked him upside the head with a fire poker?. Why didn't you just introduce him to your sword? The whole city would undoubtably have commended you as a hero."  
  
Eomer shook his head smiling at me as if I was so much younger than he was even though there were only a couple years between us. "Eowyn, if I have to tell you this again I will go nutters! Violence is not always the best way to solve things. Most of the time in fact, it is the very worst. Besides, if I introduced him to MY blade what would you have done to me? As you have said to me enough times... ," He put his hands on his hips and squinted his eyes to mock me, "I will run that bastard through, brother, I swear to you! I will make him wish that he had never came here!"  
  
True I had said this many times, but did I ever look like that? "Eomer, if you EVER do that again you will wake up in a bed of cattle dung. Lovely brother. Allow me the pleasure of thanking you once again. Lets get rid of this wretch before he becomes roused." I looked pointedly at the ragged cloaked man who still held a sneer on his face, even in sleep.  
  
Therefore, we drug the Snake out of my room after I had dressed properly, of course. I was still rather dizzy after the encounter with the floor. Stupid floor, it jumped up and bit me when I was not looking. It was not as if I was not in control of the situation or anything like that. The floor is just so sneaky.  
  
We had carried Wormtongue past the kitchens to the amusement of the servants. They cheered us on, and the Chef, Monte, gave us a hand in heaving him into the pig slop. Moreover, just to our rotten luck that that was exactly when Wormtongue had decided to wake up.  
  
At first, he did not understand what had happened to him. He just sat there staring at us with a look of pure mystified terror and chagrin. Then he stood up with an apple peel sticking on to his forehead, and began bellowing at us, me in particular, "Whatever were you fools thinking? You will not get away with this heinous crime, this insult to the King! I will see to it that you are shunned from the kingdom! Your father will renounce you! You put this upon yourself, girl! All that was required of you is that you submitted to me! Now you shall suffer a most terrible fate! Be content that I will not do worse than I have already done." Eomer balked and I just shook my head.  
  
The Snake stalked forward, slipping a bit in the grime. "Remember what I have told you. You will be mine."  
  
"You have already told me that a thosand times already. Don't you understand that you haven't gotten anywhere with it?"  
  
He stepped over the fence. He hollered right in my face huffing his breath in and out with his greasy hair falling in his eyes, "I will get you yet and I will make you sorry that you ever played this silly game with me, woman."  
  
Eomer socked the Snake with a look of satisfaction shining on his face. "Lets go."  
  
***  
  
As promised we were, sadly, renounced by our own father. We left the kingdom to regroup, suffering the loss of the only man I have or would ever allow myself to love. Our father was no longer our father. 


	5. Minas Tirith: I am going on a trip

Chapter five. I will remind you once again that I do not claim any of this but the way in which it is written. The key events, the people, and the setting all belong to Tolkien who have given us so much to ponder. Bless him. Not that I am religious or anything like that. It just sounded right at the time. I hope my stories do not get deleted off fanfiction because I deleted all of the chapter copies off my computer. I don't think that they would unless I did something bad. Anyway, shall I continue this magnificent tale for you? Now where was I? Ah yes. I remember now!  
  
***  
  
The chef who helped Eomer and I throw the Snake into the pig slop also journeyed with us to Gondor. We were heading to Minas Tirith which was one of the few places left where I was sure we would be welcomed. Wormtongue didn't leave many options open to us. Seeing that it was in the Winter months we could not go to our second home, the cottage on the Entwine river, because no one lives there at that time of year while the roads are treacherous with ice and trade is closed. Therefore we were to go to the only other place where we were familiar. We were to go live with the family of Denethor.  
  
The house of Denethor is a happy one, loud, but happy nontheless. I was alway comfortable there. Faramir, Boromir, and their host of younger pesky siblings always kept me occupied. The last time I had been there I was eleven. Faramir and I would hunt in the woods and Boromir would stealthily sneak up on us dressed like an orc and then holler a deathening war hoot, or he would sometimes sneak up all the way and pull my hair from behind and disappear again. Boromir and Faramir had always been excellent swordsmen. Boromir the better of the two and Faramir was the more charismatic one. Faramir was my best friend and confident. How nice it would be to see the two of them again.  
  
What evil pranks there were to be played! Faramir two years ago at the cottage had snuck off with my clothes while I was bathing and I had chased him around the woods tracking him in just a towel until I ran into Eomer. He just laughed at me and stole the towel right off me! I didn't sneak back into the house until the moon had been up a long while and the candles were blown out. I tried to quietly sneak back into the house knowing that everyone had gone to sleep so that no one would see me dirty and naked scurrying about with leaves and twigs in my hair. Graceful me then proceeded to trip over Boromir's pet hound, Fox. It nipped at me, snareling, chased me to my room, and proceeded to bark until the entire house was roused. Need I say it was embarassing? Faramir never let me live it down. Oh, revenge will be ever so satisfyingly sweet.  
  
Now at sixteen years old, it was time to see my old friends again. Maybe they will help me sort out the Wormtongue problems. Something needs to be done. This cannot be allowed to continue. Father must be helped. I wonder if there is any help for him? Oh I hope that something can be done. I cannot stand to see him in such a dilapitated state as he is in now.  
  
***  
  
There was a breeze outside the gates of Minas Tirith. The white flags flew in the wind showing the majesty and power of Gondor that I found enviable. The city is such a live one.  
  
Deep horns errupted from within the white brick walls of the fortress as the gates were opened and a troop of seven tall blonde and brown haired men rode out on well built, majestic horses to greet my brother, the chef Monte, and I. Two men with long hair under their ornate helms of gold I reconized almost immediately. How they have changed! They've even got facial hair! I rode, galloping forward to meet them half-way, smiling like the damned fool I was. The other five horse men stayed where they were while Boromir and Faramir advanced. The five men were guards. It was customary tradition to greet honored guests in this way. It did not take them long to come to greet us. Either they knew we were coming or they were already attending buisness at the gates.  
  
Faramir practically jumped off his horse in an unrestrained enthusiasm and bounded over to my horse to help me down. Unfortunately for him I was already easily hopping off on the other side and his courtesty went unnoticed. No matter. He came over to greet me and bowed. Oh my. How he had changed! Now it was all the more evident. His girth was wider than it had been two years past and his height was considerably more. If he was to get much larger I would not have been able to reconize him. No more a boy but a man. His bearings were strong but as benign as those of a child.  
  
"Lady Eowyn, lord Eomer, how wonderful it is to see you after such a time! No hard feelings about that towel thing, Eowyn?" He nudged me playfully but hard enough to knock my breath out. "Eomer! My have you grown. The ladies must sway on their heels everytime you pass. Look at you both. You look weary. Shall we proceed inside? I am sure you have many adventures and exploits to tell us about, we'll hear them at dinner. Come now. Lets go because a storm is approaching and Lady Eowyn is wearing a white tunic. Not that is such a bad thing is it?" He smiled in a friendly facitious fashion as if they had never been apart.  
  
"Brother." A deeper voice that had to be an older Boromir spoke in mild alarm, "Where are your manners you filthy scoundrel!" He ruffled his younger brother's hair. "How nice it is to see the two of you again however I hear bad tidings from Rohan. I hope you are to tell me that what I have heard is not true. Has old Theoden really been under an evil spell? It is that slimy tounge of a worm, isn't it? Your being here must be of ill fate also. I have worried for you much."  
  
"How serious you sound." Eomer spoke softly with a harsh unnatural smile disturbing his normally gentle features. "There is much we need to speak of. Let us go inside then. We cannot allow it to storm on dear little Eowyn's white tunic, can we?"  
  
I had nothing to say to this bantering. It was all intended to miff me and I would not allow them the satisfaction of doing so. "Yes, let us go then."  
  
Faramir burst out laughing at my stoic response. I think he anticipated it. "Yes, shall we?" He linked his arm in mine and we all walked the horses back to the gates of Minas Tirith. 


	6. Minas Tirith: The Marketplace Escapade

Thank you all who have reviewed.  
  
To Agador of the woods, part of your foot is called the heel. I didn't really mean that they were wearing high heels. I didn't really think of it that way. That is funny.  
  
To Me, It is a practiced art for Eowyn to not kill her brother, Faramir, or Bormir. She didn't want them to see her angry because in her head anger is a weak silly thing and very undignified. Faramir saw right through the act. Oh she will get them yet. I assure you that they will be sorry they messed with the E woman.  
  
To Christine, Thank you for being patient about the whole father thing. I think that it worked out rather nicely, don't you? It even added to the plot a bit and help form many relationships and effects on the story. The entire going to Gondor was created by my... um... blooper.  
  
To Aahz, my dearest fiend (Oh and friend), This will not be harlequin... this will not become harlequin... this will not become harlequin... *Fumes* Oh and Love yah. Read and be happy!  
  
***  
  
The Market Place inside of the city was bustling with people. The Monte, the cheery old chef, had left us then to meet his family. The rest of us had been given a respectful berth in the crowd as we were headed through the line of shops and trading shacks, because of the known prestige of the brothers. People gave us room to move, but as we threaded through the crowd it was still necesary to hold onto eachothers shoulders in single file as not to be swallowed up in the sea of people.  
  
I wonder how much fun it would have been to wander this place alone? The sites were fantastic to the eye. Bolts of vividly colored cloth hung throughout the streets, flashes of color like becons in the corner of my eye as we passed. It was so noisy. People, laughed, and bellowed, hollered, and cried as we passed apparently without too much care for us as they went about in their daily buisness. Strange objects that I had never seen before lain next to kettles of tin, weponry, and bundles of tinder. It was all jumbled up together like a child's sloppy room.  
  
It seemed to me that it required all we could do to deter my brother, Eomer's, attention on our directed course. His eyes would begin shining and his lips would part wide right before he would decide that it was time to dash off again, and drag us to another of the flashy booths we crossed. His previous distress when hearing the tidings of Boromir seemed lost in his eager wonderment. The last thing we were pulled off to was to a shop that was packed with viewers to some spectacle. A demonstration was happening, and in what other area besides magic?  
  
Magic! It was all purely stunts and tricks of the eye. The tall dark haired elf behind the counter was nowhere near as respectable looking as what elves are usually considered. He had a rather blood thirsty scheming look about him as if he were the thug of some dangerous criminal. I noted that his powerful appearance had nothing to do with muscles, because in that department he was definitely at a loss. Therefore he couldn't have been some henchman but the madman himself, hardened to the core, that is if he was into that sort of buisness.  
  
Alot of the rougher looking people I had ever met were into mercenary work or smuggling. The elf was very rough looking.  
  
The elven man was pouring together liquids and tossing in unknown ingredients in a large wrought iron cauldron it seemed. He might as well have been making a stew for all I cared. Magic is something of Faerie Tales told to children before they went to bed. The only thing know to be remotely close to magic was the wizard, Mithrandir, who claimed to have magical powers. His magic was just words also. He was the bringer of trouble and his only power was the power of persuasion which in it's self is a kin to magic. The only magic that I know of, phony.  
  
As the elf continued to mix the ingredients to the potion that he now claimed was to be used to rejuvenate the mortally wounded to former health, he kept up a running commentary wooing the crowd to his every command. As he finished he poured the worthless solution into small vials attached to silver chains. I turned away and began nudging through the crowd, companions in tow, and attempted to leave to no avail. I muttered something about insane men and the cruel looking elf looked up at me and started heading towards us.  
  
Oh no, I thought, more sales pitching.  
  
A huge man with a brutish look about him was blocking our path in a very truculent manner. He was sneering down his bulbous nose at me and said, "Why would I give way to some woman like you? You would be better off, woman, if you did as I say and-" He stopped abruptly and I turned around to see the Magician staring crossly at the brute.  
  
"Let Lady Eowyn, Daughter to the King, Theoden, of Rohan, be. You, my dear sir, would be better off digging your own grave than attempting to cause trouble with the likes of her. Or with me for that matter. Be off and come back when you learn some manners!" The tall man left with a snide but startled look on his face. "Come now my Lady... and Lords of course. We have to get you all out of here. We need to speak." He looked back at his stand to his servant and said in his deep voice, "Gorin, run the shop until I return."  
  
Obediently a short boy of the age of 14 stood up and finished pouring the potions. We left without stating another word. 


	7. Minas Tirith: Amaden

To my wood-dwelling reader. It is quite alright. That was not nearly as stupid as some of the things I do. I have common sense. Seriously I do, but sometimes it is entirely forsaken. Like when I do things like saying an adorable dog is extremely rabid to a stranger, thinking it funny. Now, that can be considered very stupid. There were details involved, don't worry, it didn't come out of nowhere. Okay enough with the embarassing of myself. On to the story!  
  
***  
  
"Well we can't wait here until they kill you!" The magician spoke harshly his eyes blazing with an intense emerald fire in them as if he were extremely excited. "What are we waiting for? Move!" He commanded to us pulling me forward.  
  
I wasn't stupid I heard the words 'kill you' and I ran for it. Assassins were not exactly the people I would tango with. Have us go at it with a sword and I have no problems at all with the attempted killing, but an assassin would do well in this crowded market place. It was the perfect plan. Take me out around thousands of people. Who would guess it was you who had aimed the arrow if you were up high enough in a shady loft? I ducked down realizing the advantage of the rooftops and continued scooting through the jammed crowd behind the mysterious alchemist.  
  
Eomer hollered behind me, "Whatever are we doing?"  
  
Faramir bellowed, "Running! That is what we are doing! Keep going!"  
  
I knocked into a short and plump red-haired woman making her dump a bucket of seed in my path, and I leaped over the mess muttering an apology and throwing a gold peice at her. I continued ahead but I had no idea where I was going. I was only following the dark hair of the tall elf in front of me. I didn't even know his name. I would need it to either scream at him with it later if this all turned out to be a wild goose chase or to use it to thank him with if there actually was a real threat. I felt stupid running like that.  
  
"My name is Amaden" The elf spoke over his shoulder.  
  
"But I didn't-"  
  
"We can speak of that later. Now... ah Lemnon's shop. Here we go. Hurry inside." The elf named Amaden waved us towards the shop entrance.  
  
"But-" I said but was cut off by his hand gesturing for quiet.  
  
"Be silent. We do not wish to attract unwanted attention. Come now."  
  
Amaden's lips opened as his forehead furrowed, "Watch out!" He pushed me forward and held out his hand behind where I was standing.  
  
There was a sharp TWANG TWANG sound from about two-hundred feet distant.  
  
Amaden stretched his arm out in a fluid spontaneous motion to a point just behind my head before i could even see what had happened. His out held hand began emanating a emerald glow and from his real hand stretched another hand, illumanted emerald green, which emerged and reached out quickly. It grabbed the one arrow, and in the blink of an eye it incinterated to the consistency of dust. A second later the emerald hand grabbed the other arrow that was swirling towards me and did the same work with it.  
  
I blinked, astounded, "You knew it was coming before it came! For some reason I think that you aren't telling-"  
  
"-Hurry up for god's sake woman get inside!" He looked back at me.  
  
TWANG TWANG  
  
These arrows were also caught as the hand stretched out on in a large emerald aura and caught an arrow two fists length from my eye.  
  
"Run! Let's go!" Amaden the proven magician bellowed in a deep voice.  
  
Faramir, Eomer, Boromir, and I followed the dark elf into the shop.  
  
***  
  
Sorry that this is so very short but I want to go to bed and enjoy rest while I can still have it. Besides, I tire of listening to the slash 'em, dice 'em movie that is blaring in the next room. It is like Jason 10 or something like that. How very creative.... Chop. Chop. Slash. Splurt. Thud. Splat. Ahh! 


	8. Minas Tirith: The Mind Wanders the Dark

To Agador of the Woods, the wood dweller who reads too. I thank you for reviewing so frequently. You always have such interesting comments and they brighten my day. Heels, heehee. Don't worry about anything. All shall be revealed. Well all Dealing with Amaden, anyway, but I fear that I will bring up more questions for you than I will happen to answer.  
  
To Christine. I thank you also for reviewing my story. Your comments are all very positive and understanding and I don't feel like such a fool about the whole Theoden thing.  
  
To Mystic Elendir of Rohan. I will try to review as frequently as possible if not for me then for you. I am glad that you enjoy this story.  
  
And lastly to ~Me. Let me thank you for reviewing, also. I feel redundant saying thanks so often, but I enjoy doing so, anyway. What an enthusiastic reader! Wow. Did I embarrass you? Oopsie. Well, I had to say something didn't I?  
  
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The tunnel under Lemnon's shop of miscellaneous trinkets was quite dreary and long. I could hardly see my own nose as I stumbled behind Amaden with Eomer painfully grasping the back of my long hair so as not to lose me in the dreary passage way that met an interminably large number of forks and intersections in what I was guessing was the sewers of Minith Tirith. I don't recall actually deciding that the sewers were going to be part of the tour, but hey I think that I can manage.  
  
I have been in worse situations than this. Once with Faramir I had wandered into the midst of a hunting party of huge beastly-looking trolls. We were caught before we even knew about the predicament ourselves. They had left us in an unlocked shack besides a fire. I surmised that they thought us pretty weak from stature and the fact that we had barely moved when they carried us to the hut. The stillness wasn't from lack of trying though, as our captor's arms were like tree trunks so we were immobile. The only way we ended up escaping was by dressing up in cattle skins and mooing like cows. We had rather conspicuously trotted out of the shack bent over on each other and passed about twenty feet from the troll's caucus. The caucus was no doubt about how they were going to cook us. I saw this. Language is no barrier when people wave about crude axes and frying pans. They really thought that two of us were a cow! And you may ask what the moral of the story is? Trolls aren't very smart but they sure do smell bad.  
Yes, this tunnel wasn't so bad. It was just extremely long. Lemnon the Shop holder decided that it was most prudent to follow us to the palace to ensure that our passage was a safe one, but the avaricious way he was rubbing his hands together told an entirely different story. He guided us through the sewers, leading us down passages and an uncountable amount of turns chatting at us merrily. It was all we could do to shut him up, and finally we got him to do so but only after he had finished pointing out the various species of vermin that inhabited the drains. I didn't really mind the talking, because the glowing yellow eyes became less than what I had imagined them, as when I knew that it was just a rat. I am ashamed, I am supposed to be the brave one in the family. I guess that we all have some phobia.  
  
I was vastly mystified by the dark figure I was following. The enigmatic elf had opened up a world of questions to me. Magic? There is such a thing as magic? That is a thing of faerie tales. Well obviously there was a lot I needed to learn, but the elf remained silent except for to shush the shopkeeper. He seemed as if something was troubling him as he kept looking over his shoulder. Well indeed he should be worried. Those assassins were out there still. Who says that they did not follow us in? Can we really trust old Lemnon's locks where those brutes were concerned?  
  
But something else was bothering Amaden, as he had said his name was. Amaden, the alchemist and the magician in the sumptuous deep crimson robes and the kinky brown hair that framed his unusual perky ears. This is the magician with the emerald green aura that incinerated arrows. What a formidable antagonist! I wonder what warrior could possibly stand up to him in battle. Could they so much as get a swing in at him? That is truly a dangerous power to possess. And how did he read my mind. I could feel him do it. It was not coincidence. He had said that we would speak of it later. I guess that now was not a good time.  
  
I think that he has some things to explain. I don't think that I have ever had this much patience with anyone, but I feel that this elf is not the sort of man you should mess with. Eomer has always told me that prudence goes hand in hand with patience. It is weird that that softy of a brute and womanizer does have some semblance of intelligence. I wonder if I will ever understand anyone.  
  
I blinked as my eyes began to readjust to the level of light in the house of Denethor. We came in through the wine cellars and surprised the sleeping guards outside the door who didn't have the faintest idea that there was infact a secret passage hidden in the wine cellar.  
  
***  
  
I am sorry that I cannot write any more for my dear readers at the moment. I am being kicked out of the library as the librarians which to return to the places in which they live. So weird of them! It is only 4 o'clock. I guess that I should be more considerate of people who have lives, though. They have something that I never will. Please review this short blurb. 


	9. Minas Tirith: Bubbles and Visitors arent...

I thank all again who have reviewed. On such short notice, too! Could I please ask what an AU story is? I haven't heard of it before. Is it just a Fanfiction error like the 'rn's or does it mean something that I don't know about?  
  
Oh there is so much I need to write about. You will not be dissapointed by me my friends, I hope. *Gulps*  
  
I am sorry that I did not get to answering your questions about Amaden yet, AotW. That is what I will do this time. I promise. Or I can almost assure you that I am slightly convince that I will. It is right here, anyway. So allow me to start, and chapter nine of The Tale of Eowyn shall begin.  
  
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The steward of Gondor met with us in the hall of greeting in front of a few prestigious officials at short notice. When we entered he was seated in his grand jewel encrusted chair. The chair was to the base of a towering vacated throne, which made the hall look desolate and bare.  
  
As soon as the aged but solidly built Denethor spotted my brother and I, he gracefully hopped out from his minature throne and, a little too quickly, strode over to us in a elegant but entirely unrefined gait, smiling cheerfully all the way. "Eowyn! Eomer! Our paths meet again. Like the cycles of the moon and the sun it is a continuous process, and like the moon and the sun I can never seem to be rid of you!" He wrung his hands in happy anticipation. "How nice it is to see both of you. How bodes things with your father?"  
  
Eomer's smile soured, "What father?"  
  
I turned back and grabbed Eomer by his should firmly, "Now brother do not be like this." I grabbed my forehead with my other hand. Oh! There was so much to explain. Things that I did not wish to explain, but they all needed to be said, "Denethor, you must forgive me, we have much to speak of. Our king, Theoden's, mind has been poisoned by Sir Grima the Wormtongue, the plague of Rohan. Things do not bode well for us at all, dear friend. Not at all." To think of it hurt. I paused a moment to organize my thoughts.  
  
"My father, they have been through a long and tedious enough journey besides having cause to mourn," Faramir said stepping to my side to offer me an arm, and I declined. "I feel that our guests need a respite to regain their strength. Let us resume this tomarrow?"  
  
I nodded to him gratefully, but no sooner had I done so then Amaden had come forward to speak to the Steward of Gondor. "Oh, but my lord! I still have much I require to speak to you about. But it is also required of me to speak of it in solitude. Shall we take this time to speak of it now?"  
  
Denethor's broad smile dimmed as he spoke, "Yes I suppose we shall have to. Let us go quickly then." He looked to his sons. "Boromir, the master of weapons wishes to see you for your latest exscuse about why you have evaded practice, again. Really I forbid you to take to such sloppy behavior. How will you ever be a good Steward if you do not show responsibility?"  
  
"I will attend to him now." Boromir smile was traced with chagrin.  
  
"And Faramir, my son, Mithrandir arrived while you were away, and wishes to speak with you at once." Denethor's once prominient smile had now vanished completely. "I believe that he is quartered in the violet room in the guesthouse. After you escort our friends to their rooms I hope that you will see to him."  
  
"Of course, father." His cheeks colored quickly, but his features were stoic. Wether he was angry or embarassed I could not be certain. He wasn't exactly one to embarass easily so I assumed that it was the former, but why?  
  
***  
  
Faramir led Eomer and I to our rooms and with a hasty goodbye and a kiss on the cheek he hastened off down the corridor. I wonder what effect that Mithrandir must have over him to make him rush like that? Faramir isn't the sort who will just bend to some one's will or follow them around like a lost puppy. Something must be very wrong.  
  
Oh well at least we are relatively safe for a while. I locked the door to my fuzzy peach colored room and practically sprinted to the bathroom tearing my wretched riding suit off as I went. My that thing smelled! Oh yes! There was already hot bathing water ready for me! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Faramir! He was always the considerate one when he wasn't busy trying to ruin my life. Ah yes! This would be my first hot bath since we started out. I smelled nearly as bad as my brother Eomer did and just as bad as the horse I had been riding.  
  
When I slipped my tunic over my head I hopped straight into the tub and sunk my head below the surface watching my hair float through the wather in a very spooky supernatural looking fashion. I just watched it wave back in forth in the echoeing currents of the tub's water until I was nearly out of breath. Water is so nice. It is a truely damned beautiful thing. The best I have had lately was the odd metalic tasting water that had been in my canteen for the last three days that I had not filled since the Entwash. My fingers began to loosen up at their knuckles as the cold was replaced with the feeling of warmth from water. No wonder they say water is the essence of life. If I am ever going to pray to anything it will be water.  
  
These thoughts continued to revolve through my head for the better half of an hour as I soaked in the tub. That was until my thought started to wander. What about that Amaden, elf. I deserved an explanation from him! He cannot just keep secrets like this from me. I shouldn't be dragged into anything by him unless I knew what the heck I was getting into. He has some purpose. He isn't just here along for the ride. He wants something from me and by the looks of him I don't think that it will benefit me all that much.  
  
I heard the sound of something tinkling as it broke on the floor right out side of my doorway. Someone was out there. It was an asassin. Who else would sneak and not knock first? I slid noiselessly out of the tub to prepare myself. There was no towel! Faramir has struck again! Oh I will so get him! I should of known that it wouldn't have been easy for him to do something nice, like to have a servant fill a bath, and do it innocently. If only he knew the predictament he put me in. There was no time to do anything about this. I grabbed by smelly riding dress and flung it around my like a toga. Looks can't be that important to an asassin, can they? I took hold of the sword I had recieved in the guard house and stood with my back pressed against the door frame. I am so not prepared for this! Water was soaking my toga-dress as it flooded down my hair in rivers. I moaned silently.  
  
At the door there was a light barely perceptable thud. I crouched forward and ripped the door open thrusting my sword out into the corridor. A vibrant emerald illuminated the door frame and the sword's blade fell in clumps of molten metal. I was shoved backward and landed on the floor hard under the weight of Amaden. He smiled an mocking smile and laughed at me in his harsh voice, "I believe that we ALSO have many things to speak of, my lady."  
  
"My lady? More of a malady if you ask me." I replied in an arrogant tone and kneed him in the groin. A cruel thing to do. Normally I wouldn't do it but I was unable to do much else.  
  
"Oh I see." He smiled weakly before he regained his composure, "This is how you greet visitors with information."  
  
"Oh and to think that you were just visiting!" I pulled up on my make shift toga to no avail. "Well I hardly find this a pleasant way to visit people!"  
  
He grinned at me, stood up and bowed, "Exscuse me, but I will wait outside for you until you... pull yourself together." He looked pointedly at my soaked dress.  
  
"Yes please do. I expect an explaination for all this! How did you get in? The door was locked."  
  
"I will show you when you are ready to attend to me." Amaden turned around and exited the bathroom as I threw a bar of soap at his head. It exploded into flakes and landed in a pile behind him. He left and I scowled at his receding form. 


	10. Minas Tirith: Talk is cheap Arrows are c...

Ah yes. I have survived until the tenth chapter and people actually like to read it! This is a new thing for me. You have no idea. It makes me almost as happy as if I was to be able to get Anne Rice's Vampire Marius^_^ to have me. He is my best friend. Well, besides my dog, my computer, and well, my best friends, of course. Now that is talking about pure happiness! Well for a while anyway. Let's not analyze that, please? Okay, I will write now.  
Again to all my splendid reviewers, you make my day, and (to remind you) YOU ALL ROCK!  
  
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Since I had nothing else to wear I ended up donning the smelly riding dress. It was wet and sticky, but I have seen worse than that like when-  
  
Alright, I promise I won't go into any more story telling for a little while. It isn't my forte but I just always have so many things that I want to think about.  
  
I tied my hair back in to a big heaping mess and exited the bathroom to deal with my 'visitor'. Or 'attacker' should I say?  
  
I didn't really know what to think of the elf. Not exactly with a lot of credible integrity, is he? I guess I will have to see. There is no fighting him. Not after what I saw with that poor unfortunate bar of soap. God, I wonder how he did that! Maybe he will teach me. I smiled and then began to frown.  
  
What if he isn't trustworthy? I know that he doesn't want to kill me... yet, but maybe he has other things planned for me. To use me in some way. I will have to keep my eye on him.  
  
In my pungent riding dress, with the slits up to and over the knees on front and backsides for easier manuverablilty on a horse, I left the bathroom. Seated on the small couch across from the gigantic window with a grand view of the city, sat Amaden. He was sitting there reading an old ragged book with an oddly serene composure considering his current situation.  
  
He looked as if nothing could touch him.  
  
He peered up at me from behind his book almost instantly although I had entered the main room of the apartment without the slightest sound.  
  
"Telepathy." He said in a friendly manner as if he was talking about the weather.  
  
"Oh." I smiled and sat down next to him. The proximity was a little too much for me, but I was attempting to restrain myself, to look composed and dignified like he did. I really don't think that it took restraint for him. He looked comfortable! In fact why am I even acting like this! He can read every thought that I am thinking. That explains why he told me his name.  
  
"You aren't at all prudent with your powers. You made yourself suspicious from the very start by answering the very questions that I was thinking as if I had stated them outloud. That would not be a wise thing to do to a stranger... Amaden." I said his name with emphasis as if to prove my point and to also prove that I could handle the stress he put on me..  
  
He broke out laughing quite hardily. It was a real laugh. A tough coarse laugh, but it was a real one all the same and it startled me. He looks so very sinister and hardened. The laugh seemed uncharacteristic. "My dear lady, Eowyn. You are definitely the analyst. If only you could grasp the implications of which you observe so shrewdly. " He frowned darkly. His deep voice was now like a low rumbling and it was no longer singing with his laughter. "If I had not wished for you to know about my gift, then I would not have let you know. If I had not wished for you to see me, then I would not have come to you when I did. If I meant you wrong, I would have left you to Wormtongue's assassins. They would have completed their task had it not been for me." He smirked in what I saw as self-rightousness.  
  
I scowled at the new information. I also scowled at the arrogance of this so-called magician. "Come now, sir Amaden. Surely someone with as GREAT a cunning as your own could have surmised that just your being here, no matter what you have done to me, is threatening enough. If I was not to be ginger of my predicament I would be stupid. I would also be quite dead! What integrity can you claim to have if you sneak into my apartment, and by means in which I do not even know of?"  
  
"Ah. You have brains as well as brawl, then lady Eowyn? That is a potent combination indeed." He stood up and walked over to the elegant fireplace. He picked a candle out of its candlestick and in doing so there was a sound of rusty mechanics crackling and popping through the walls. "Come with me. It is not safe here at the moment, and it is an even greater hazard for you to remain here when we speak of what I came to tell you about." He gestured towards an empty wall. Then he grabbed the wall from the corner of the room and slid it opened. The mechanics in the wall groaned slightly from the pressure, but they gave easily with no added resistance.  
  
"And before I decide to trust you, where, might I ask, does THIS passage lead to?" Amaden seems to have this thing about dark secret passageways, doesn't he?  
  
What point is there to not trusting him? Unless of course he was himself a cohort to Wormtongue. That could be a definite possibility. First off he knew whom Grima was and that he was after me. He even knew about the assassins. Who is to say that he isn't working for The Snake, himself? He certainly looks shifty enough for the job. Well he isn't going to kill me or he would have already done it. He is going to take me back to Wormtongue. I shuddered.  
  
Amaden's face soured in a look of absolute irritation. Obviously he was still reading my thoughts. There is no upper hand for anyone against this guy except the dark Lord himself. "Hurry up! We don't have all day or would you prefer to be skewed with an arrow as you sit there and ponder about me!"  
  
"Is that a threat?" I asked with a tone of defensive menace in my tone. I don't know how long I could stand against him, but I could at least try. I wasn't about to-  
  
Amaden stomped forward and pulled me up by the collar of my ragged dress.  
  
Twang! Twang! Crash!  
  
Two arrows shattered the large window, and embedded themselves in the couch behind me. The arrows were embedded in the wall at the same level as my head had been.  
  
"GET GOING! Now would you rather fight me or die? I have never seen a slower woman in all my six-hundred and forty-nine years!" Amaden bellowed at me and shoved me backwards into the dreary pitch black passageway.  
  
My elbows crashed hard against the stone flooring and began bleeding profusely. The skin was all but torn off the joint leaving an injury that I knew was there but couldn't see in the dark. My eyes were swimming in their sockets and my head lulled left and right on it's swiveling base. I let my breath out harshly.  
  
Amaden barred the passageway and turned towards me but I couldn't see his face. "And what the hell do you think that you were doing? That is a damned good way to get yourself killed. Stupid girl! Come on! We cannot linger here, any longer! We need to go now!" He roared at me.  
  
"And why can't we stay right where we are? You barred the door, didn't you? I demand an explanation to all of this! You cannot just pull me into all these plots and schemes of yours that I have no understanding of! Tell me now!" I hollered hoarsely from the floor. Blood was dripping down my left wrist from when he had thrown me on the ground.  
  
"What I pulled you into? Milady the malady, you did it all on your own! Selfish wretch. The moment you left Rohan you put it all upon yourself. In fact, the very moment you resisted Grima you had doomed yourself! Do not blame me for your foolish actions. Had you any intelligence at ALL you would have known better than to come here! This is the very first place that he thought to look for your wretched hide!"  
  
I stood up, furious, not caring that this man was much bigger than I was, nor that he had the power to destroy me at a whim. "So you do work for him! And let me guess, you came here to drag me back to him. To return me to that Snake. To give me to him so that he could torture me both by way of body and mind. So that he could imprison me with his other enemies. So that he could rape me! You are doing this to me and I will not stand for it! If you think that you will benefit from this, I warn you now that you are wrong! I will not stand for it! I would kill myself before I returned to Rohan against my will." I was practically nose-to-nose to him, standing on the balls of my feet not paying any heed what so ever to the pain searing through my elbows and my head.  
  
He snarled ferociously, "So be it, woman! I don't care, just shut the Mordor up!" He swung his arm backwards and struck me across the face, knocking me unconscious and I landed in his grasp.  
  
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What do you think of Amaden now? He is almost as bad as Wormtongue, isn't he? and you thought that he was going to be a good guy, didn't you? Please review. 


	11. Amaden: Trees, Trees, Trees, Rocks

Chapter Eleven now. Aren't you proud of me? I enjoy this. Really I do.  
  
For ~Me: Not every one can be nice can they? Amaden is weak and greedy, but he isn't the only one in this story like that either. Eowyn is also that way, maybe not to the same extreme, but non-the-less she isn't exactly perfect.  
  
For AotW: Glad to hear from you again so quickly. What did you think of Amaden? No comment?  
  
Thank you Siberia for the explaination on Alternate Universes. I guess that it is one, isn't it?  
  
And for Noelerin. Might I ask what was confusing specifically? If I was to know what it was I would go back and fix it.  
  
Would anyone feel like being my beta reader? I have edited 1-5, and 10 but the rest including this chapter need to be edited. I thank you all once again for reading. Sorry I have not updated in a while. Let me stop talking and write now.  
  
***  
  
I opened my eyes, startled, to find a wrinkly venerable looking old man's face peering into mine as my head was lolling violently from side to side. I was bouncing up and down from my perch as if there were an earthquake occuring and I was on the edge of a cliff. The old man zoomed past my vision like a blur. Ah! He was on a horse. That explains it! Wait no! I was on a horse too! I was straddling the horse backwards basically slumped against its haunches. What in Mordor am I doing on a horse!!! I was supposed to be in Minas Tirith with Denethor, Boromir, and Faramir. I am going to slit Amaden's throat for whatever he has done. Faramir?  
  
I looked up and saw in the position Mithrandir had been behind the horse the horse that I was hanging on to for my life, Faramir. He smiled at me and hollered, "Nice to see you in the world of the living again, Lady Malady! However did you manage to continue your slumber on the back of that horse!? In a full sprint at that!"  
  
Lady Malady. He is in league with that elvish fiend Amaden. Hell. Where is Amaden? He must be around here somewhere, isn't he?  
  
"Right here in front of you." Amaden yelled over the tumulous sound of the horse hooves clapping on the small stonepath of the wilderness we were racing through. Of course. He read my mind. How stupid of me not to see who was leading the very horse I was on. "Yes, Lady Eowyn, you should be more on your feet in these dangerous times."  
  
"Literally." I retorted, "Let me off this blasted horse, you fool!"  
  
"I am the fool? You are the one who walked herself straight in to a very obvious trap! Am I right?" He was right. I was definitely the bigger fool of the two of us, but I wouldn't allow him the satisfaction of hearing me speak so. "Your thoughts are enough. They speak truer than words. People do not lie to themselves as often as they may think that they do. You should follow your instincts more than your brain. You walked into a trap, endangering the lives of both your self AND your brother, not to mention the fate of all the land!" What?  
  
"What do you mean the fate of all the land? I am but one woman, and I hardly think that my brother is all that important either. Let me go back to Gondor! I do not wish to become involved in your dubious schemes! You cannot just drag people into your personal agenda! I will not have it release me!"  
  
"Foolish Woman! If I was to release you now you would be at the mercy of the asassins we are now fleeing! They chase us incessantly. They have been on our trail since before I knocked you out. They have been on our trail since you staggered your arrogant ass into the gates of Minas Tirith. As a matter of fact, Aeirren was at the very gates in the guards post alerting the other hired killers as to your arrival. I think that you caught him off guard, as no one expected you to be this dumb in your choices. Had he been any less surprised of your arrival he would have been prepared to meet you himself. And that my lady Malady is not a very thrilling senario to imagine."  
  
"You still cannot pull me into your plots. You have a reason for not killing me. I will not allow myself to become one of your tools!" I attempted to turn around in the bundlings behind the saddle. I found that I couldn't because some one had evidently strapped my to the horses rump while I was still unconcious.  
  
Amaden looked back at me with a mystifyingly surprised look on his pale elven features. "Kill you? I have never slain a woman in my life, Lady Eowyn." His eyes hardened again and he whipped his head back around to see a low branch five feet in front of us. "DUCK!"  
  
I obeyed.  
  
"And for your information this 'conquest' of mine is not truely mine. I do not work for Wormtongue either. It is exactly the opposite. I work for no one!" He shouted vehemently as he yanked the horses rope taught to make it slow down. "We are here. Gandalf, Faramir, this is the one I spoke of."  
  
I was confused. Amaden swung off the horse and attended to me. After unharnessing me he helped me down. I raised my arm to wipe my frizzled wind- blown hair out of my face and Amaden immediately drew a dagger and rested it to my throat.  
  
"You shall behave. Our steps must be prudent ones if we wish to survive the trip. We are to do many dangerous things in the next couple weeks and I cannot allow you to mess it up. You are an essential element to the plan." He was hovering over my shoulder whispering in my ear like a vemonous snake, "Without you we are nothing. You must cooperate for everyone's sake. We will explain but we must first leave the path and enter the sanctuary of the dark Forbidden. Quiet now." He lowered the blade as the old man I assumed to be Mithrandir and Faramir unpacked the horses.  
  
I looked around to find out where 'here' was. I could find no evidence of any civilized structures or anything that varied form the previous path. Just rocks and trees... and hollering whoops in the nearby area from which we had came. The assasins. It was no lie. They were trying to frighten us. And on all accounts it worked for me. I shudder at the cacophanous sounds. They were traveling little slower than we had. That was a stupendous feat seeing that they needed to follow our trail. It was almost as if they could smell us. Feel our hearts beat. They didn't need trackers. They were naturals. A loud whoop came from very close by. I jumped and almost let out a scream but Faramir wrapped his arm around my mouth just in time.  
  
Mithrandir nickered softly and the the horses took off down the trail without us. They stuck together and sped away on Mithrandir's command. I hardly had time to marvel because at the same time Faramir was yanking me into the woods. I craned my neck to see where the others were. Amaden was brush our tracks off the ground so that we would not be followed. The three of them worked as a very efficient team. I was just dragged along helpless and with out a role. Yet. I am sure I have a dirty job in the end of this. Probally the worst of all of us. But they would not get me to stay. What is in this for me? What am I supposed to do in the first place? Why is Faramir involved with these two unscrupulous magicians?  
  
We kept up our pace and quickly made into the dark forest that I assumed was still near Gondor. I couldn't have been unconcious long enough to be very far off. As soon as I get a chance I am off on my own. I need to find Eomer. I wonder where he is. I don't care if I have to sneak through a whole kingdom of killers, I will find my brother. That is what I should be doing. Not being dragged around like a captive animal! But what will I do after I find Eomer? What if I can't find him? What if he has already left Minas Tirith? What if he is dead? 'He isn't dead. I can feel him.'  
  
The last two phrases running through my mind were not of my own creation. I looked back to see Amaden staring at me and then he turned back to sweeping our trail out. 


	12. Amaden: Inside the Dark Forbidden

I have a little bit more time. Allow me to write another chapter for you befoe I begin my trip to North Carolina. I am glad I got that last chapter up. I was having a writer's block and didn't think that I would be posting for a longer time. I hope the last chapter wasn't too confusing. Gandalf sent the horses off so that the asassins would follow them instead of the actual companions. Eowyn is doubting every one like the childish wretch she is. Does that explain anything?  
  
I feel bad... I don't have any reviews to thank people for yet. What fun is that?  
  
Oh you guys are going to kill me for the Amaden thing happening here in the Dark Forbidden. You will want to slap me, but I must ask that you desist.  
  
***  
  
Now I didn't know what my companions were actually thinking but me, I thought that the Dark Forbidden doesn't sound like such a pleasant 'sanctuary'. I wondered what the Dark Forbidden was. But even more than that I wondered when I would become informed on what the Mordor we were actually doing! Maybe I should have been a bit more patient with my captors but I didn't trust any of them. Faramir was the closest companion to me in the group but he has been known to play quite a few evil pranks on me. Maybe he might think this all a joke and be going abit too far with it. I don't want to become too close to any of them. They are all dangerous. All three of them. Madmen. Not good for my health.  
  
We hadn't traveled too far before we came to a halt at Amaden's command. It seemed that he was the leader of this circus. I won't be his clown or his stooge. There was nothing notable about the location to denote it's importance. "So this is the entrance to the hall of Dark Forbidden, is it Amaden?"  
  
"Silence," Mithrandir whispered pulling me close to his tall form in the dimming light. "We do not want to draw attention to ourselves in this place."  
  
"I see nothing." I stated firmly.... and loudly.  
  
"As well you shouldn't, daughter of the Rohan, I now suggest that you stop your childish stupidity before-"  
  
"Before what?" I snapped at him.  
  
"Before I make you, child." Amaden said in a clearly malicious tone that I didn't like at all. I remembered the ugly looking dagger and shut my mouth abruptly, scowling.  
  
Amaden turned to a boulder and bent down to it. He shoved it and it wouldn't even rock. "I should have known,"He muttered. "nicemphafawane." Green light shot out of his fingers for five seconds and he winced a little. "Nocioveleeinor". Lights sparkled and flickered in the giant stone. They faded suddenly and the rock crumbled to reveal steps underneath where it had been.  
  
"They cursed it?" Gandalf asked.  
  
"Yeah, did you see it try and burn my hands? It was so intense that I actually felt it before my defense mechanism kicked on." He turned and gestured to me. "Welcome to the hall of my distant kin." He laughed hardily at the phrase 'distant kin'. I had absolutley no idea why and I was too irritated to ask. "I should tell you their story some time. I think you might enjoy it." He laughed again, "Let us go inside before the portal recloses."  
  
"Portal? What is a portal?" I asked and Faramir also looked rather confused. I was pleased to see that I wasn't the only one who was at least a little left in the dark about this entire thing.  
  
"I will explain it once we are inside. Hurry now." Amaden ushered us all down the winding dark steps.  
  
Our boots clicked on the strangely metallic sounding flooring. Who has ever heard of a metal floor? How would they make one? Who are 'they' exactly? Questions danced about in my mind during the five minute trip directly down into the deep of the earth. It was chilly down there. The air had an almost stale taste to it. A large thud echoed from where we had entered.  
  
I grabbed for the sword I had gotten from Faramir, "They followed us after all our precautions?! How did they do that?"  
  
Amaden turned to me and smiled darkly at my evident fear, "Do not worry my lady Malady. It is just the portal boulder being replaced. He turned and walked to the center of the dim room and pressed a small cylinder down so that it disappeared into the plateform it sat on. The room was instantly illuminated with a bright light and Mithrandir turned the head peice of his staff to make it stop glowing.  
  
I couldn't believe anything that I was seeing. There was a sun under ground in the very room I stood in! Inside the clearly translucent platform sat a glowing sphere of light. I cannot believe there is another sun! What a find this is! If only Eomer could see it! It is true magic!  
  
Amaden turned back to me, "Don't be stupid girl, It is an alterate power source lighting up the light globe which is in no way a star."  
  
"I didn't say star! I said sun! I didn't even say it! Quit reading my thoughts!" I shouted heatedly.  
  
"Oh nevermind. I might explain it later when I have more patience." Mithrandir looked at Amaden sternly. "Okay. There are quite a few things that need to be explained but I doubt you will ever believe them. Now is not the time. I don't know about the rest of you but I am hungry and tired."  
  
"I already napped, thank you very much." I said rubbing the place on my head where he had hit me. If I am not careful I am gonna get brain damage. "And what about the hunters following us. We can't just stop and let them catch us can we?  
  
Amaden shook his head, "I already told you! The portal boulder is in place. It fell out of the tree. Yes Tree. "He said to our many weird looks. "My friends have a very eccentric sense of humor. When the boulder is in place the portal forms around it and it cannot move unless you will it to. The language you thought you heard me speak was just nonsensical babble that I used to help me concentrate on the interworkings of the boulder. I answered two riddles that only some one of my sort would comprehend. The first I answered wrong and it burned me. The second...." He paused and closed his eyes as if in pain, "Was right."  
  
I stared at him, "You are a giant mystery and I think that some explantion is going to be needed. But first, "I smiled trying to remove the look of trouble from his face, "I think that we should be cooking you something.".  
  
"You know, that almost sounded pleasant and decent of you." Amaden smirked darkly.  
  
"I didn't say that I was going to cook." I said. "That I will leave to Faramir." 


	13. Amaden: Whistling in the distance

I love reviewers. Honestly I do. If only I could tie my shoes I would be  
the happiest girl alive. Don't mind me. I am just me.  
  
Well ~Me.... I haven't gotten my butt in gear enough to make you really  
hate me yet. I have some really weird crap planned and you are all invited  
to join me. Oh I promise. I just have to get to it. You will see what I  
mean. I don't know if it will happen this chapter. Don't worry it isn't sap  
or anything like that it is just insanely odd. A happy oddness mind you.  
  
Sn1ckzi: How do you pronounce your name? It baffles me. Thank you for the  
nice words. If I continue leaving anymore lengthy remarks like this noone  
will read them and they will miss all the important stuff when I decide to  
make something important up to say. I guess I will just leave you a little  
thanks. Thanks.  
  
Aahz: I have to say you are the most couragous person I have ever met. I  
don't know all that many people who would venture so far into my mind and  
read every last bit of my stories. I offer you the same and encourage you  
to continue writing your sap. I just hope you stick with past trends and  
are there to read my thanks. Thanks.  
  
***  
  
**  
  
*  
  
""Whoa! What a kitchen!" Faramir howled enthusiastically from the other  
room. I could hear him jumping up and down with boyish joy on the metal  
flooring... Oh boy... a new toy...  
  
There was a fusillade of clattering and tinkling sounding from the kitchen.  
  
"Sauron's rump." Faramir swore, "I'll just be picking that up then." He  
said with chagrine and began wistling an old elvish tune that was  
supposively derived from the history of the Ents.  
  
Gandalf smiled gently at entertaining noises, then he turned to Amaden who  
was at the table, sat down with the two of us, and clasped his hands in a  
buisness-like fashion.  
  
I began for him what I already knew he was about to question, " So why  
exactly is this place called the Dark Forbidden, anyway? It doesn't seem  
all that threatening to me, a little strange and stark looking, but nothing  
dangerous. As a matter of fact there hasn't been hide or hair of any  
creature down here at all. Friend or foe. I know that you know exactly what  
is going on and I demand that I be informed about what the Mordor is going  
on and where I am being dragged off to."  
  
Mithrandir put his arm on my wrist as if to warn me not to mettle with such  
a murderous looking elf as Amaden but I ignored his insistent hand.  
  
Faramir began wistling a different tune. A alien sounding tune that I had  
never heard before.  
  
Amaden's forehead scrunched under his well masked emotions but he other  
wise remained stoic. He cleared his throat with a harsh barking sound and  
then began to speak to us, particularly me, "As you no doubt have seen  
there are any mysteries shrouding this place. It is not an evil place. In  
no way. The name Dark Forbidden is but propaganda to keep the superstious  
and foolish men at a distance."  
  
"Why." I started impatiently. "Is there a point to all this? I think that I  
have better things to do with my time than listen to old unimportant tales  
about old molding dumps from a elf who hasn't even the courage to tell me  
to my face what he wants!"  
  
Amaden looked stricken, "How very childish, woman. No wonder he called you  
woman-child. That is a undeniably fitting description."  
  
'The Snake' I thought. How did he know. What secrets and personal agendas  
does this man keep? 'Childish' I shook my shook my head in disgust. "Watch  
your tongue, Magician, or I will cut it out for you." What a big mouth I  
have!  
  
"ENOUGH!" Amaden jumped out of his seat and grabbed my chin. "Do you wish  
to know or don't you? Obviously the information I wished to impart on you  
is not good enough, your princess-ship. Let us go. I will speak to you  
wether you want me to or not. And you," He turned to Gandalf with a feral  
emerald visage, "You are not to follow. There are things that need to be  
dealt with between the lady Eowyn and I. You are not to interfere." Amaden  
dragged me down a corridor we had not passed through as of yet with a  
newfound ferocity.  
  
Faramir's whistling halted dead in the air when he entered the room and  
took in the scene. He went to pursue his old friend and her 'captor', but  
Gandalf intervened. "Do not get in between them. You can only worsen the  
predictament. Anyway.... I sense-," He closed his eyes as he finished  
speaking, "- I sense that all is not as it seems."  
  
Faramir shrugged his shoulders emphatically as if to say it didn't bug him  
although his eyes showed fear for Eowyn's sake, "Nothing ever is as it  
seems, Mithrandir." He sighed and strode around the table once, "Come now!  
I just cooked all this marvelous food and no one wanted to stay and eat  
it?" 


	14. Amaden's Tale: Insanity

Amaden pulled me into a small atrium. Inside the atrium was plant life of varieties I had never seen before. It was obviously meant to be crop plants but they had overgrown their boxes, and had began sprouting in cracks in the flooring and on the rotten wooden edges to the soil holders. The builing was apparently a self-sufficient one but now barren.  
  
Before I could get much farther in my thoughts Amaden began speaking, he seemed to have calmed down from his previous angry state but his words were rushed as if he thought he only had a little time to speak, "As you can see this place is empty. I knew the occupants. I was young. Barely two-hundred years old then. I am sure that seenms like a lot for you but time passes quickly for me in the scheme of things.'  
  
"You will most likely not beleive more than a word of what I am about to tell you. I ask only that you listen with open ears and try and accept it. It is the only answer you are likely to get. The occupents of this building were not of Earth in any sense of the word. Of this I am certain. I cannot tell you the name of the people because it consists of both sounds that I cannot create and that you cannot register. the host party could speak elvish as well as the languages of all the other visiting embassadors."  
  
I put my hands over my eyes to stare at my palms as I was tilting my head back as far as humanly possible. I groaned. I am stuck in all this with a lunatic, I thought. A lunatic who can read minds, I remembered and tried to focus on what he was saying so that I would not make him angry at me again for stray thoughts.  
  
"I told you that you would not believe me from the very beginning." He eyed me with a feral look that shook me like a wilted leaf.  
  
Make that insane and dangerous, I thought.  
  
"But if you SO desperately want to know about what part you play in all this I suggest that you hear everything from the beginning.'  
  
He continued his tale, "It was an assembly of beings from all the nearby worlds in the relatively close area. They had a specific name for it and like so many other things I cannnot recall it no matter how much I try to. Overall the assembly could be labeled as a big fat failure. The host group selected all the embassadors randomly. The creatures that were to become embassadors were brought to the host planet with out any briefing or explanation at all. I was one of those creatures. It was entire chaos. Dangerous beings with no understanding of where they were ran around ungaurded, as a threat to all the others. There could be no communication between the embassadors to anyone but the host group and overall nothing was organized. In the end the host group politely attempted to give me their thanks for joining them and touched my forehead with part themselves only reconizable as something similar to a limb. Thus my little trinket of a going home present was my protection ward which you have seen in action a few times. The next time I blinked, when my eyes opened I was sitting in the middle of a mud puddle on my lady, Galdariel's step. I told her of what happened to me and I have been learning from her personally ever since on how to use my new gift."  
  
Insane.... but Mordor... that sounds like it all fits together.  
  
"Yes and not insane. Believe me for once. As I have already said this is all the explanation you are getting from anyone. Shall I continue to where it involves you?"  
  
I nodded once and sat down next to the overgrown shubbery sticking up through the odd square stone flooring. 


	15. Amaden's Tale: We're all a litte crazy s...

"I still think that you are insane. Tell me how this happens to involve me." I was sitting on the floor of the cracked plant invaded tiling of the old dusty floor. I had been sitting there for nearly an hour now just questioning Amaden to know avail. It was getting absolutely nowhere. The man is a lunatic. Another world inhabited with beings from other.... Ah so confusing.... So irrelevant.....  
  
"I figured that you should know the truth about me since you will be stuck with me for the duration of this war." Amaden said still standing imperiously above me until he sat down next to me with a scowl on his face, "Ready or not... willing or not we are stuck together. I have been assigned as your gaurdian by my lady Galadriel."  
  
Wait, wait, wait, WAIT! Just a moment please, Amaden. I am just a little bit confused about a couple things." I grabbed my forehead. Mordor. I can feel the headache coming in. "First off you said war. War as in fighting." I paused a couple moments to consider things and then shook my head. "Absolutely impossible. The races are all at peace with each other. Pacts of trading have been made, ambassadors, you name it and it has been a step taken tor wards the tranquility of Middle Earth. No one wants to sabotage the peace. No one would benefit. We all prosper under the interracial trading commitments. And it seems to me as if there hasn't been a single quarrel any more serious than the date and location of the Grand Feast since before I was born."  
  
"Silly girl-"  
  
"Let me finish what I was saying you old bloodthirsty fiend. My second issue with your revelations is the whole gaurdian thing. If you have been trying to protecting my skin you haven't been doing a very good job at it. I have more bumps and bruises and scrapes and cut and gashes than I know what to do with either in spite of you or BECAUSE of you." I put extra emphasis on the 'because' to try and see if I could evince some guilt on my companions part. It didn't work.  
  
"Listen here, little naive one. If it wasn't in my best interest I would not even so much as be here. I would rather let you die in the countless deadly predicaments you have already created for yourself than to deal with your tongue. I only deal with you because except of the fact that I know that the fate of all the races depends on your 'bumped and bruised and scraped and cut and gashed' hide! You need my protection to survive what Mordor throws at you before it is time for you to do your part for this world. Galadriel sent me because of the forewarning that she felt. I did not see the vision but I trust that woman with my life. Grima is an agent of the Dark Lord Sauron.-"  
  
I cut him off with a brusque, "Vanquished. The Dark Lord Sauron was vanquished."  
  
Amaden grabbed my face in his callused fingers looking into it with his vindictive murderous looking eyes. "Not vanquished. Do you seriously humble yourself to believing just what is easiest to believe? The world is a lot rougher and more violent and deadly than you could ever imagine. It is not that perfect place that you have seen through shrouded eyes. There is more to things. A darker side. You have never fought in a war have you, child?"  
  
I became indignant, thinking that he was challenging my ability to wield a sword. "No, but I could spit any man who dared cross me and feed him to my dogs." So harsh... what things I have to say to protect my image...  
  
Amaden ignored my defensiveness. I knew that he could beat me in combat without the slightest thought on it and so did he. He didn't even think to call my bluff, it was obvious to us both. "Until you do become part of a war you will never see the vileness that can consume a man's heart. The blood lust and the anger. True hate in its purest form. And fear. Fear beyond your wildest imagining. Every time I battle, I feel panic... fear.... I know that one day the enemy will rip my feet out from under me and end my pitiful life- right then and there! I will lose everything and face the horror that eats me in my darkest sleep. Death. Things are not as perfect as they seem to be. Not by any means. I only need you to trust me on these matters."  
  
I was speechless for once in my life. What could I say? He was so fervent in the telling that I was astonished. Something hurts this dark maddened elf. Amaden fears! I would have never thought. It was scary to think of what he feared. This man is so much more the....... superior in so many ways to me.... battle, experience, trained thought... as much as it hurts me to admit the truth I am in envy of him. Ah I do think that I could get to know him well. I wish he would teach me.  
  
Amaden's eyes softened and he smiled a smile that I could not fully comprehend but appreciated non-the-less. "Here take this. I have a feeling that you may need it sometime when I am not there. It is all I have to offer you..." His smile turned almost impish to my surprise" ... besides a bit more training with your sword." Mordor, will he ever exhaust that mind reading trick.  
  
He handed me a small spherical gem of emerald green that was attached to a length of copper colored chain. It was a beautiful thing if not a bit dirty. Dirtiness was to be expected on the road anyway. On closer inspection I noticed on the gem a miniscule elven inscription in a gold script around the belly of the charm. Knowing that it wasn't likely that I could speak in his dialect he automatically translated it to me in a small mystifyingly sweet voice that contrasted to his usual impatient tone, "'Wings of life to evade defeat of purpose. Life in exchange for a small price to you. May you find this tool useful.' Hand crafted for you. It is not as it seems. Inside what appears to be a solid gem is a liquid. The most powerful healing agent that I have ever concocted. It could bring back even a full grown man from the brink of death no matter what the ailment." His face took itself back to its former dark scowling self. " I am sure that you must realize first that if a arrow were to be stuck in this man's chest you would pull it out before you gave him the potion. If you do not the potion is surely a waste of my time and effort."  
  
I grimaced at his rebuke. It is terrible how much I had warmed up to him so quickly. It isn't natural. Then again he isn't natural. He can't be. Even if half of what he has told me in this room were true he still wouldn't be normal. By any way you were to look at it he would be worse. I shook my head giving up the childish act for a while, "Thank you kindly. I appreciate this a lot. And I would also like to thank you for every thing else. I will have to take you up on your offer about the sword lessons. But I have to ask you now if we can go get something to eat. You can explain everything else.... when you are ready and I am not hungry."  
  
I got up and began walking to the door we had entered from. Amaden grabbed me and yanked me back on the ground crouching above me and grabbing the hilt of his sword. My chest had hit the ground with a large thud and clatter and I let out my breath in pain. Oh no. What does he think he is doing!? Why can't I just hang around more predictable companions? "What the Mordor do you think you are doing.?" I annunciated each word separately.  
  
He shoved me down in the chest as I tried to smack him, "Close your mouth, you-"  
  
"What do you think you are doing?!" The voice of Faramir rang through the room. It couldn't have looked good.  
  
*  
  
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***  
  
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Please review and tell me if I have fixed things up at all. Thank you -Teq 


	16. The Misson: Impossible

I really want to thank all of my reviewers and I think It works best to throw a disclaimer in this story somewhere. I suck with the non-ability to remember things (Like disclaimers). Well here it is:  
  
I do not own this,  
  
Sam I am,  
  
Eowyns NOT mine  
  
nor is Spam.  
  
So please don't kill me  
  
and don't fill me,  
  
full of lead,  
  
As some might do, geez.  
  
Sam I am.  
  
I am Sam.  
  
I like my wallet where it is,  
  
damn!  
  
I am not worthy,  
  
so don't sue me.  
  
All for you Tolkien.  
  
I love you.  
  
Good bye.  
  
***  
  
Faramir pulled his sword out of his sheave quicker than I could follow and motioned for Amaden to stand up slowly, "Don't you dare touch her. I don't want a hair on her hair touched or I will personally remove all of yours and some other things as well."  
  
Amaden stood up with a look of positive fury on his face. "Do you dare threaten me? I don't suppose that you might be hiding an army behind that door?" He pointed behind Faramir.  
  
Faramir blanched, "This wasn't part of the agreement when I signed on with you."  
  
My jaw dropped. "What? And might I ask what exactly was the agreement, friend?"  
  
Amaden bent down to give me a hand up, "Faramir do you always have to do everything at the wrong time? Hemoratoire Whenthen!" It sounded like a foreign curse in a different language. He looked at me with dangerous emerald eyes, anger not directly focused at me but still as dangerous as a deadly poisonous snake, "Persistence can get you killed. I have killed enough people for it, anyway. You might want to consider shutting your mouth for just a little while and listening instead."  
  
"So tough." I stated in a whisper through gritted teeth. In my mind I told him, 'So tough, Guardian. You think you are so great don't you?'  
  
Amaden looked to Faramir to give an explanation, "I heard you clattering down the hall with all that money in your pocket. By the sounds of it it seemed as if you were not a trained tracker so I automatically assumed that you were foe to us. That is why you saw me protecting Lady Eowyn on the floor."  
  
There was an embarassed nod from Faramir but I got a bit angry at this answer, "Wait a minute you do not think that I could defend myself? I have a sword. I am the best swordsmaster in Rohan. You cannot doubt my abilities!" There I went again. Even though I was sure that this gruff elf was better than me I was bragging. Woe. Woe. Woe.  
  
"Well Lady Malady. If I was to assume that anyone who was loud was unskilled it might have been the last mistake I made. Think about it. I will not argue with you anymore tonight. Let us go eat."  
  
***  
  
The dining hall that we first set up camp in was now dimmer in light than it had been when Amaden had dragged me off. The central light source had dimmed itself in what I assumed was a natural setting. The light seemed slightly orange in color like it would during sunset hours as it streamed out of the large globe in the center of the room. The 'sun'. Gandalf was pouring over some sort of book with rusty metal bindings and he looked up at us inconspicuously as we entered with a slight smile gracing his lips that was meant for only me. It seemed as if there was a secret intention to it, but I did bot understand what it was for. Gandalf looked back down at his book as if nothing had happened and he continued to read.  
  
"Well the food maybe a little on the cold side but I can fix that for you."Faramir said with a grin trying to mend his miscalculations of ten minutes past. "It is surprising what this old kitchen has in it. I would be delighted to hear the history of it since it seems to be lacking a present set of occupants in it besides us."  
  
I smiled, "Aliens, Faramir, creatures from another planet came here and set up a base on Middle Earth."  
  
Faramir held the back of his hand to my forehead. "Are you sure you are feeling well?" He looked up at Amaden with a fierce look on his face, "I swear that if you did any thing to her to mess with her head or bend her will or anything like that I will personally make sure that you do not wake up in the morning. Feed yourself, the remains of dinner is on the counter. The hearth is already aflame and ready. Excuse me while I go hide in the corner and bang my head against the wall for my stupidity."  
  
Amaden just nodded to him and headed into the kitchen nearly silhouetted by the light of the hearth. Frustratingly I forced myself to ignore my hunger pains as I chased after Faramir's receding form to a corner of the dimly light dining room. I was going to try and get some information out of him.  
  
"Faramir, don't be like this. It isn't often that I see you so unhappy. What has happened? What aren't you telling me? You don't have to worry about Amaden. He won't hurt me. For some reason I trust him, I hate him with all my passion but I still happen to admire and trust him." I sat down next to my friend clasping his hands in mine.  
  
Faramir stared down at his knees avoiding my eyes. His forehead knotted up in a furious pain as if someone had died or broken his heart. He didn't speak to me.  
  
My, have I been stupid. Maybe I shouldn't be nagging him. I am not the only one with problems. I just want to know what they are! Maybe I can help him some how. Oh I hate to see him like this.  
  
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and whispered to him gently, "Don't be like this. Tell me what is wrong. I am here for you. You don't need to be so silly about it. Have I ever let you down in all our years together, friend? What I need to know now is what is happening here. I need your help so that I can be prepared to face what ever is coming to me. Frankly, Faramir I am afraid. I don't say it often but I really am afraid. What is going to happen to me? I have heard only half truths and lies and thick silence since I got pulled into this. I do not know if I am going to survive this if I do not even know what awaits us at the end of this wild goose chase." It was my turn to look at my knees. I had finally said it. I had said it with out alluding and with out sarcasm. I had told Faramir the truth and now I expected him to do the same for me.  
  
I received the most unexpected response from my opening-up. Faramir smiled at me. It was a sad smile, heart rendingly sad, but it was genuine smile all the same. "Do not worry, Eowyn. I will make sure that you get through this in one piece. Or no more than two." He smiled impishly and ran his finger down the bridge of my nose, affectionately. "But I do not think that it is my place to tell you what your mission is. At the moment though I do not care. Amaden hasn't been very fair to you in all this. I think that you deserve to be given some respect," He crinkled his eyes up, "And I don't see any reason why you shouldn't know." He paused it seemed, just to reconsider for a second before with his hand still in mine and facing me more squarely he braced to tell me and face the consequences.  
  
"Can't be good can it?" I said watching all his body signals to see what he was thinking.  
  
"No really it isn't. We are," He drew in his breath, "We are going back to Rohan." He paused again. I knew that he would start stuttering if he didn't. It was his trademark since we were little to start stuttering in difficult predicaments.  
  
"Nearly as bad as Mordor." I gulped my anger back down my throat. Simmering. I didn't want to blow up at Faramir. I couldn't. He didn't deserve to have me get angry at him. It wasn't his fault.... except that he came with us knowing this. He knew that he was going to be pulling me back to Grima and he even tagged along! He was bringing me back to that Snake. Did he have any idea what the Snake threatened to do to me if I returned? I didn't even want to think about it. I shuddered and then scowled at Faramir, patience forgotten I might as well have already decided to rip his face off and eat it.  
  
"Eowyn." Faramir started trying to fix things up. "Eowyn." He started again with pain in his normal looking brown eyes.  
  
He wasn't as good looking as his brother, Boromir, but he had always been my best friend. I could not allow myself to hurt him. No matter what he is doing to me, I would not hurt him. His intentions are not bad ones. I nearly went to embrace him, to tell him that I did not doubt him but I didn't. I turned to listen to his response instead.  
  
He continued. "Eowyn, I isn't as it seems. I do not want you to get hurt in this.-"  
  
Thank you mister obvious, hurry up and continue.  
  
"-But Eowyn, it is for the best. I don't know if you know this, but Grima the Wormtongue is an agent of Mordor. He is working against us, gaining power in the heart if the land of men with unknown intentions. He is a spy trying to find information on what we are doing and he is trying to poison the king. Not just poison him but control him. Weaken him. Use him as a pawn."  
  
"I knew this already. What can I do about it?"  
  
"Let me finish. We know what he is doing! A maid who cleans both Grima and Theoden's rooms had noticed some suspicious things going on. More than just manipulating by words is going on."  
  
"He is right." A sinister voice sounded from behind me. I turned around to see an Amaden who looked down right angry at the two of us next to a still smiling Mithrandir. Amaden stood over me like a tower of doom, and I thought that he would smack me but I didn't cower. "Grima has been using two potions. A mind controlling potion that slows the activities and consciousness of your father called perdis, which consists of matter from over seas, and a slow acting poison called Duentral which can be found in only Mordor as it has been banished from all other places."  
  
Mithrandir, always to the point said, "Our job for you is for you to get into the inner sanctum of Wormtongue and retrieve these potions."  
  
"What?" I glared at them but then thought of my father, and my glare became far less menacing, "Fine. I am sure, knowing that pervert that I can find a way in. How will I get out again?"  
  
Faramir smiled, "It is dangerous indeed, but I am sure that we can find a way to help you out in that department. The people of Rohan are getting more and more uncomfortable with Wormtongue. They loathe him but they are afraid of him. We are positive that if they knew what we were doing that we could cause a revolt giving us time to go in and help you get out while Grima and his cohorts are busy with the regular people."  
  
Mithrandir sat down next to Faramir and I, "Do not forget that Wormtongue has many spies everywhere. I am sure that there are spies even in the midst of the farmers. To be sure that Wormtongue is not made aware of our conspiracy we can only tell the most trusted and let them create the support groups for us with their better knowledge of what is going on. This is a dangerous job we have for you but you need to cooperate with us."  
  
Amaden was the only person to remain standing. He looked down at us all, "We need to try it though. If this does not work then Grima will be allowed to build and develop Sauron's defenses cutting off our only defenses at surviving this war."  
  
I stood up and looked Amaden right in the eye. My arms were folded defensively over my chest but I did not allow him to make me feel small... like a child. "Why me? Why not someone else with a little more experience? Why me of all people?"  
  
His face darkened, "The answer to that should be simple, "You know him. You know Rohan. He wants you. He wants you more than anything. You are the only person who could get into his bedroom. You are therefore the only person who could fetch the potions. And for the least obvious of the reasons you need training for the future. You are stuck with me kid. You need to get used to that fact."  
  
I sunk back down on to my chair. It was a hard chair but it was better than to stand.  
  
***  
  
Reviews please. I loved this chapter! Oh yes.. Plot comes in the plot goes out. Through my head and out my mouth. Or fingers should I say? Well I hope that things have cleared up for you some. This may not be so AU after all. 


	17. The Mission: A mustering of Strength

Still going and going and going and................  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that was first made by Tolkien. I love this fic though. Do not steal it.  
  
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For some reason this apple didn't taste as good as the other apples that I have eaten in my lifetime. Now maybe it was just this particular apple or maybe it might have just been me. Either way it just doesn't taste right to me.  
  
Everyone else was sleeping next to the blazing campfire. It was my watch at this late hour. We are a day's trip from Rohan. That was all the time I had left before the plan was set into action.  
  
I was still shocked by the idea. I didn't even want to think about it. I love my father. I love my fair city of Rohan, but I cannot stand the idea of facing Wormtongue again. I could very well die from this all. Is it worth it? Should I really be going back there? Is it worth my death? In my heart I know that it is. They don't need my help though. They could get somebody else to do Amaden's dirty work. Amaden isn't really using me for the reasons that he said he was. He has a personal agenda. I could see it in his eyes.  
  
I am not ready to do this. I am not ready at all. I can't do this. They can't make me!  
  
I slid off of the spindly tree stump that I had been sitting on for the last hour. I had been argueing with myself about this since that night in the Dark Forbidden. I am not going to worry about it anymore. I am going to go and find my brother, Eomer. He is the one who needs me. Not these fools. Eomer is out alone somewhere looking for me. I need to find him. That is exactly what I need to do. These people aren't good for my health. Literally! They are going to get me killed! They are going to make me face the Snake. They are going to make me have to seduce him. I have been running from him since he came to Rohan when I was a little girl. I will not allow him to have me now. I WILL NOT willingly go to him. I WILL NOT! I will not be bitten by the Snake. I have more important things to do and I intend to do them.  
  
I passed stealthily by Faramir. His face shone with innocence. It broke my heart to leave him to these dogs. To leave him to face Grima without my assistance. I will miss you, my friend. My best friend that I have ever had. I have to leave you now. I hope to see you again some day... I hope... I gulped at the thought of what could happen to him.  
  
What in Mordor am I doing? I cannot leave him! I cannot leave my people to their fate! I am needed. I will go to Rohan tommarow. For my Father. For my family. For my people. For Faramir.  
  
I returned back to my dirty hard tree stump and sat down on it like a queen. A graceful queen ready to protect what is hers. I am the watch dog. I will watch. I will protect. I will not falter again.  
  
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I thought that that needed to be added in there. It isn't really anything very eventful but it is important. 


	18. The Mission: Strange Pathways

Gee Katie. I wonder if that is what I meant? Worms arent very nice things are they? Don't let me pick on you cricket girl from Tulsa. I don't mean it badly.  
  
Agador of the Woods: You are really hilarious. Did you know that? The whole apple thing was meant to display symbolically Eowyn's opinion on her situation. No poison was involved in the making of this fic. I wanted to use oranges but it would be higly improbale that there were oranges in Middle Earth seeing the Europe did not encounter them until Naval exploration.I got that nifty fact from "A Girl named Birdy." I think that was the title of it. It is an historical perspective of a noble girl's life. It was really hilarious. But any way. I am sorry if the apples confuse you. You might connect them with other symbols like in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" where the apple is poisoned. Who knows? The idea was that The apple did not taste good to her as it usually does which symbolizes that she did not like her predictament and what she knew she had to go do. Sorry for the confusion Heel-Woman.  
  
Thank you --- (person with out an adequate name) also for the pointing out of the discrepencies. I cannot really change the story now though. My purpose in writing this is not to be accurate so much as to create a good story with good literary elements in it. Maybe someday when I am a better writer I focs more on the details because the actual writing of the story will become easier for me. I seem to find that the fanfiction story, no matter how many times you go back and you edit it, is only a first draft until it is completed. You will never really know how things will fit together until you are done with it. Therefore when I have entirely finish the writing of this fic I will go back and revise the entire thing. Then the story will be open for picking out the details like whose father is who and who is prettier looking. But for the whole better looking thing. I dont think that what the author says really matters in this case because it is Eowyn's opinion. Not everyone has the same tastes but that is just a picky detail. Once again I thank you. I like reviews like this that require thought and looking over on my part.  
  
For Losing Grip- Thank you for the excellent reviews. I like it when someone tells me their plain indiscrimantly truthful opinions on what I write. An author cannot get better if they donot work out their flaws. Inorder to work them out you need to first recognize them.  
  
AND FOR EVERYONE: How do you feel about Amaden as a character? Do you think that I did a good job creating him? What do you think I should focus on in the future when I go about creating original characters? I hope no one thinks him Mary-Sueish do they? What about Eowyn? Is she a Mary-Sue? I tried to give her faults like her childish behavior and her just plain jumpy, arrogant, and obstinate personality. Do you think that it did the trick? Does she come off as a likeable but imperfect character or like you like Aahz and you want to kick her head in?  
  
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***  
  
Here we were. In Rohan. The city I loved. The funny thing is that I would rather be anywhere else but here at the moment. Isn't that stupid? To love a place so much that you would die for it, but to not want to even reside there or so much as look at it.  
  
Oh well there is no turning back now. Amaden made sure to warn me of that fact before the grand city was so much as visible in the rocky hills. As always the sight took my breath away. The hills of my homeland, rampant with horses and the gallant men who spent everyday with those horses. The horses were a spectacular sight. The trademark of Rohan. You couldn't find a better horse anywhere in the land. The men bred the horses. The horses bred the men.  
  
My favorite horse had always been the horse named Shadowfax. He was also the obvious favorite of the King. I would ride him through the hills of Rohan. Not just near the city but on excursions to different regions as well. I would even ride him solitaire to Gondor to visit Denethor and his family.  
  
Shadowfax isn't a regular horse. By no means is he. He has wits and a way about him. It was as if he could sense the way I was feeling and exactly how I wanted him to move. He would do it too...that is, of course, if he was in a decent mood. When he was having one of his petulant snooty days, not so few and far between as you might guess, I add, the snotty horse would do everything in his power to iritate you. Many a days he would just try and buck me off. He never really respected or tolerated any rider besides my father but every once in a while my persistence paid off and he allowed me to ride him. It wasn't really that bad.  
  
Amaden poked me in the shoulder, "In preparation to what is to come you are thinking about horses? How is that to help you at all? It will take more than horses, luck, and pride to save your skin. I suggest you meditate on what you are planning to do and what you are planning to say in order to make this quest a complete success. One glitch in this and you will not just put your own life in danger but also all of ours and the conspirators who aid us as well. Do you want their deaths on your conscience?"  
  
"If you don't like what I think about then don't read my mind." I said with a false threatening sound to my voice. It wasn't time to worry about looking tough. I had more important things to do. Things like worrying. I laughted in a half hearted fashion as if to smooth it over. "Besides I don't need to talk all I need to do is lift my tunic up."  
  
Faramir frowned, "You are not taking this very seriously are you Eowyn? You need to be vigilant. We donot wish to lose you to this."  
  
I could cry. If only he knew. If only I knew how to tell him exactly what I was thinking. I am so afraid. "Faramir, I won't mess this up. It will be as easy getting free beer from a sleeping drunkard."  
  
Faramir looked throughly disgusted with me. He had reason to. Gandalf smiled in his all knowing way. Does he actually have a role in all this? It seems as if he just has been tagging along for the ride. It doesn't really matter now, does it?  
  
***  
  
Entering the city of Rohan was as if entering it for the first time. It does not matter that I was born here. It is no longer the same place. Buildings and shops were in need of repair. The store designed for the sale of linen was no longer the marvel it had once been. In just the three months time since I had last been here an unnaturally nearly spontaneous delapatation had occured. The once beautiful oak wood doors with inlay of pearl and pine and carvings that depicted the history of the city had cracked from the bottom to nearly half way up in one place cleaving apart an ornate design of an ancient King's face. A handle of oak had broken into two pieces. One half hung limply from its post on the door and the other half was on the floor scuffed up as if it had been kicked about.  
  
The state of the door held true for the rest of the town. It looked as if it had not just been neglected but misused. As if it had been raped by an army of orcs, everything of value and meaning to its inhabitiants was destroyed and the city was left to rot. I knew that it was not an army of orcs that had done this. It was worse. Much worse. The greed of a imposter and the failings of a great king led to such devastating consequences as I saw as I, alone, marched to the very door of the King, Theoden's, palace.  
  
Strangers to this land stared out at me with threatening visages as I passed soundlessly forward. I had to do this. I had to do it alone... for the sake of everything that I believe in I must do this. If my father is not returned to his normal self the central goverment of Rohan will be corrupted by the squandering Snake and eventually abandoned to a greater evil than even he posesses. Boldly I stuck my chin up torwards the air and increased the length of my strides in a slowing paced gait. It was meant to look dignified and by all means I think that I got the effect across. There were of course personal advantages to these pursuits as well. With an elevated chin I did not have to look at the scowling imposters, and by having a slower speed I was delaying my arrival.  
  
Eventually I had strode up the magnificent rounding steps surrounded by parched plant life to the large edifice and ignoring still the jeering and hollering people in the streets. I pounded on the door with a resounding 'boom boom boom'. Simple as that, I thought. I seal my fate with a simple knock. Without even a struggle I surrendered myself to the Snake.  
  
The street people silenced when I knocked, apparently awaiting the opening of the door. When they heard the creaking of the warped wooden door on the rusting hinges they scattered and made it look as if they were unconcerned and uninterested at all with the palace. Men picked up shovels and began digging. Others picked up their dropped items and made themselves look busy, adjusting their carrying bags or filing through papers or just walking in the exact oppisite direction through the shadows of the early morning brought on by the buildings.  
  
The door must have been newly installed but never finished. The wood was not protected by seal of any sort the metal neverprotected from rust.In a few months time the state of the door projected the state of the people living behind it. One of these people stuck their head out through the door and toothly grinned, looking me up and down, before ushering me in.  
  
"My a lady! A dirty lady but an elegant one nontheless by the looks of her." He said with a veery unintelligent voice, his ears peaking out through his greasy blackened hair. It looked as if his hair was masked with soot. He might have been sleeping near the kitchen fires. The hearth there had a tendancy to emit extra soot.  
  
I did not know this man. The servants from my childhood had been there since I was young, and many since before I was even born. This one like presumably many others was hired by the Snake. Where did all of the previous servants go? I did not even see any one I knew in the streets. It was as if they were all hiding inside waiting for the strangers to leave them.  
  
"I am lady Eowyn, daughter of the King, Theoden of Rohan" I stated in a demanding and brusque tone of voice, "I bid you now to tell sir Grima that I have arrive and am waiting for him to greet me."  
  
His eyes lightened up in recognition. The servant bowed deeply and gave me a smile showing once again his large yellowing teeth. "Yes milady. Master Grima speaks often of you. Although me thinks..." He paused a moment and cocked his head at an angle. "What he says is not always the way a woman should be spoken of."  
  
I grimaced as he turned his back and headed down the familiar hallways of my home. The strange familiar hallways. 


	19. The mission: Darker pathways

Dun Dun Dun! It's here! The chapter that I have been waiting to write. The chapter that I hope turns out well and is what I hope it will be. It very possibly maybe a very long chapter as it has a long list of things I want to cover OR it maybe a relatively short chapter as I decide I get tired and stop exactly where I yawned. What is up with this? Every time I think about Yawning I do it. Just did it again! That so doesn't count.  
  
Be proud of me for this. I put some thought into the plot and as Aahz says it is going to be super dramatic and good and all that sorta stuff. Behold the Power of Cheese.  
  
I disclaim my hold on anything Tolkien finds to belong to him. Or did. Okay, if you think that anything in this story belongs to Tolkien it does. But I only share with him. Just him. But he can't have Amaden. He is my super spiffy idiosyncratic guy. Just you wait. He will definitely thrill you all yet. Oops am I giving too much away? Ill quit babbling and start my writing then.  
  
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"Lady Eowyn" His voice. The Snake.  
  
The servant who had greeted me exited from the hall where he had met us with out a single word. Maybe this was already preconceived. A servant just doesn't leave Grima the Wormtongue without stating that he is doing so or being told to do so.  
  
"Shall we go to some place a bit more quiet?" Not waiting for me to answer him he ushered me toward the corridor that led toward the private chambers of the castle.  
  
Well things were going the way we expected at least. Hopefully. Inwardly I gulped as I followed him soundlessly. The only noise in the empty corridors was that of the rustling fabric to Wormtongue's deep green silk robes on the stone flooring. The color made his appearance even more snake like to me. I unconsciously lifted the hem of my dress up above the ground. It is a thing naturally done to prevent it from gathering filth but that was not the reason I had done it. I was too nervous to think of etiquette at the time. Besides that I hadn't actually worn a dress since I was in Gondor. I took up wearing some of Faramir's clothing because the riding dress, the only thing I had at the time we left besides my sword, was damaged beyond my meager abilities to repair. It had torn when Amaden had knocked me out.  
  
I almost would rather not wearing a dress anymore. They are too much of a hindrance in many occasions and are less mobile. Amaden, being the only person not known in Rohan in our party had went in and bought a dress for me to wear for my meeting with the Snake. To suck up to the pervert I would be best off doing exactly as he would like me to do. That is until of course I can get what I am after and run like hell . The only problem with my attire was that I had on a pair of big clunky riding boots meant more for traveling then what should be on some 'fair maiden's' dainty feet.  
  
Not six steps down the corridor the Snake turned around and sneered at me, catching the error. "What ever are you doing in those silly boots? A proper lady would as your self would be much better supplied with a pair of slippers or sandals."  
  
I almost threw them at him but instead I replied,"It was cold this morning and the roads are harsh, I am sure you are aware of this being a well traveled man yourself."  
  
He sneered again and I was almost certain that he was onto me. I gasped involuntarily at the prospects, if he... he doesn't think that....  
  
Apparently he heard my small uttered gasp and smiled malignly grabbing my hand in an almost friendly fashion, gleefully. It was almost as if he was saying in physical gestures "nah nah nah nah nah teasing me for my stupidity. He pulled my out of the corridor into another, darker, one that winged off with a latently malicious look to it. Bad sign! Whoa bad sign!  
  
What do I do? I could ruin everything. If I resist him now, knowing that everything is upset I could ruin everyone elses chances by alerting Wormtongue to the revolt prematurely. How would I stop it? People are going to die because of our stupidity. How could they not have thought this through?  
  
"Eowyn Eowyn." Wormtongue tasted my name on his tongue as if it was candy he had just earned, "Eowyn Eowyn, dear CGIR12_. How foolish can you possibly be? Would you think that you could just walk in here and act as if you were wanting to give up? It is not in your nature. You would never have surrendered yourself to me without a ulterior motive behind it. This must mean that you thought you could get something out of me. Hmmm.." He stuck his finger on his chin emphatically, teasing me still with his every gesture. He is in his element. His dark eyes were shining with excitement. "Hmmm... What could it be? It alludes me. Don't worry you will have plenty of time to tell me later, of this I can verily assure you." his sallow visage was taking on an almost healthy vibrant gleam to it. His joy at playing with me was illuminating his features. His enthusiasm scared me.  
  
I couldn't pull away, I didn't want to ruin every one elses chances, therefore I allowed him to lead me forward, repulsed by my passiveness. I kept all worry our of my voice and attempted to take on a more charismatic and reassuring tone, "What would I be after?" I smiled a false but realistic smile using all my charm I had to try and get myself out of this situation, "I am tired of running. I have nowhere to go. I don't even know where Eomer is. We were separated by your spies at Gondor." I said this with a clear voice walking besides him in lieu of being dragged, "I had no choice but to return here. I couldn't just hide forever. Your trackers would have caught me. My chances seemed better to come back. Besides that I've changed my mind about you."  
  
He stopped and faced me his eyes suddenly intensely surprised, "Yes? And what is it about me that you changed your mind about I would like to hear this." He grinned a very frightening grin on a face that hid something.  
  
I drew closer to him. this was it wasn't it? My only chance. But ugggg. So disgusting but...... but.... I am touching his butt? uggg. not thinking about it. "I don't want to run anymore. In fact I would rather stay. I have matured alot on my little... exscursion, and I know what is better for me now. I've chosen. I want you. Don't make me run anymore. Just treat me right. I am not as self-supporting as I act sometimes."Bahh. His butt is moving. Uggg. Don't think about it, Eowyn. Well it is a rather nice butt.... uggg.... I shuddered and nearly hit myself.  
  
Wormtongue stiffened in this to surprised to actually noticed my internal struggles. He laughed. He actually laughed. "Well I am sure I could accommodate your.... needs." He paused before saying the last word to wrap his arm around my shoulders. Ugg.. Does he have to hang on me? "Well it matters not. We are here. Here is your room you shall stay in." He led me to a dark doorway removed a lock shoved me in and came in after me.  
  
Uggg.  
  
***  
  
I need to go to bed now. This seems a good place to stop. I should write again sometime soon but I need to go to work in the morning and it is 11 already. Sorry about that. I hope that you can understand what has just transpired. I didn't want to go all out and say things but have it more over explain itself. Tell me what you think, and Ill put up the rest of this part soon, possibly tomorrow if I can. 


	20. The mission: Arrghhh!

Chapter twenty now. Wow. I have never stuck with a story for so long. I believe that I am really getting somewhere with this one and I fully intend to finish it. I can feel it now Aahz is either applauding me or she is doubting me and still applauding me for the effort and change of heart. I have to tell Aahz thought that this isn't a.... Nevermind. I shall not argue... I shall not argue.... I shall not....  
  
I have to thank you Losing grip for subliminally telling me to use an internet spell check to check my stories. I never really even thought of it. Now I can have decent nearly comprehensible stories for your viewing pleasure.  
  
Disclaimer: I DISCLAIM!!!!! I DISCLAIM!!!!!  
  
Okay what should happen now? Well you can't tell me what to write because it is already pretty well planned. Just let me get back on track.... Ah here it is... I remember now.  
  
ENJOY FOR THIS FIC CONTINUES HERE*  
  
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* I couldn't see. I hadn't seen anything for an interminable amount of time. The shadows of the room were no longer shadows. They were the whole. It was as if the deepest darkest pit of hell had engulfed the room. I couldn't see at all. Only feel. And what I felt was something I would rather block out of my mind forever. In my blindness I lain on the frigid damp floor not knowing of any passing of time besides the speed in which the worms and critters of the eternal night crept under me. They crawled through my torn and tattered once fine dress as if it was a newfound nest. I cried when I first felt them. I struggled to stand up and be rid of them but there was no standing up in this small space. The hole in the fabric of my existence. The nothingness. For surely I had not known such nothingness before. I felt as if I was buried alive. And with time I allowed the bugs to seep into the places I normally would not have allowed. They plagued my soggy hair and crawled over my stomach. I did not care. My mind had more pressing matters to attend to.  
  
Chained to the floor under my back, lodged uncomfortably was my old sword. The Grime had been secured to the muddy stones that I lain on before I had even been thrown in this vile pit of darkness. That must be why Wormtongue chose this room to hold me in. Hold. What a funny word for such a situation. Dammit! Assuming that I was to be held here is also to assume that I may be moved from here! And that my friends is an impossibility. He told me a long time ago that I was never to leave. He whispered this to me in my ear after he first ripped my dress. It must have been a very long time ago because my dress is shredded. It is no longer even recognizable as a dress. It is not wearable. I had shoved the remains of it under my back to relive the pain of the swords digging into my spine. It seemed to only worsen the predicament. I could still feel the sword under the dress. The contour of the steel blade hard and crude against the soft and maddeningly damp dress. Everything was wet. My whole being shivered in the cool dampness.  
  
I cannot leave.  
  
Where ever did I find the audacity to convince myself that I was so strong of will that I could never be broken? Every thing that I ever told my self was absolute horse shit. I have been broken in more ways than just one. My body aches in every part but the feeling of that pain is damped by the exquisite aching of my soul. The flame in me had been drenched in this dark room. I cannot save myself! There is no hope for me. People died because I was too stupid to realize the foolishness of Amaden's plan. Why did I even agree to it? Was I that naive? If I was I should have died along time ago. No one deserves to be so stupid. I thought that I was happy. Why didn't I just leave Wormtongue to his own business? Why didn't I just let him have me? Why did I have to be so stupid? I am stuck in this damned room because I was too stupid to see that if I had keep to the right safe side of things I wouldn't have wasted my prospects in life. How foolish can a person possibly be? Everything is gone.  
  
Amaden was probably an agent of Wormtongue after all. He was sent to lead me back to him. It isn't very likely that that man is stupid enough to think that our plan may have possibly worked. And what better way to goad me into returning than to tell me that there is a way to save my people. Heroics... Disgusting that someone could play off my good will.  
  
Faramir....... Oh my heart aches. It should explode. Faramir... Did you betray me also?  
  
I cannot take this.  
  
My mind began to race soon, craziness setting in. my thoughts quickened in pace and intensity, my heart ready to explode with the pressure of it all. The darkness of this room is swallowing me. I cannot think straight. The room is swirling into a dark abyss, an oblivion as my mind shall soon be if I do not get out of here. This man is ruining me. Where is my pride? Have I lost all I hold dear? Is there nothing left for me? Am I going to die here? Raped again and again and again. What can I do? I have no power over any of this. I am nothing. There is nothing. My god save me. What should I do?  
  
In my rage I screamed a blood curdling scream and to my horror, foot steps stomped down the hall at a ferocious speed torwards me. Oh no, I thought. He is coming again. He is coming. I cant do anything about it. I wish he would just die and leave me alone. Maybe if I just let go of my mind and forget about things he will leave me alone. Maybe if I am not afraid of him anymore he will not bother me. If I am-  
  
My thoughts were interrupted as I heard the small creaking of the door open after the bolt and silently been opened. The noise was faint. Anybody else might of missed it but after lying in this dark pit of a cell for this long I knew it by heart. There was nothing else to hear. Nothing but the foot steps.  
  
I didn't cower in the corner. I did not move at all. I was tired. Oh so very tired and to move would be to show I was afraid. I could not allow Wormtongue to see my fear. To show fear would be to give in. He divines in my hatred and my fear. To give him what he wants, my emotions, is to make him feel like he is powerful and strong. To show fear would be to bring more upon myself. The last time I didn't move as I do now he beat me. With out a plausible reason he did so. I will bore him eventually.  
  
No light had entered the chamber in that the hall outside the cell was pitch black as well. Callused hands roughly grabbed my arms and pulled me torwards him. At the feeling of my naked flesh his breath drew in. Instead of pushing me down he had pulled me forward. What evils has he in store for me now?  
  
"What do you want from me?" I knew the answer to the question but it was spoken with a forced tone of boredom to alert Wormtounge to only what I wanted him to think.  
  
"Eowyn." Amaden! It is Amaden's voice! Amaden is here? Is he here to hurt me too?  
  
"Amaden." I said in a stoic voice.  
  
Amaden heaved me against him, holding me up by the arm pits and throwing the door to the cell open. he pulled me out of it. Immediately he let me go still conscious of my nudity. He stood up to his full height while I sat cross legged and weak I couldn't see as I was still blind from the darkness. I heard him collapse back to his knees and felt him wrap his long scarlet cloak about me. As he did so I could see an image of emerald green in front of me in the darkness behind my cloak of darkness. I could see his form clearly as he bent torwards me. Oh he is so warm and dry feeling. I felt kisses on my forehead, my eyelids, my hands, and my cheeks. They were placed with such fervency and tender care that I was to wonder if this was the same man who had treated me with such brutality on the suicide mission here.  
  
"Eowyn. You are frigid and I know your time here has been more terrible than any could imagine but we must not linger here. Grima is to come again within the time of fifteen minutes and if he finds us my search for you will be in vain. I had no idea where he had put you and until you screamed I was certain that I wouldn't. I do know where Faramir is however and if we are prudent in our steps we may be able to tear him away from his interrogators. After we get him we take the tunnel from the wine cellar back to Lemnon's shop. If we become seperated you make your way straight there. No more heroics." It stung. "I mean it Eowyn. I can handle myself and even if I wasn't you do not have enough potency to prevent the will of Grima. If you let yourself get caught again you waste the sacrifice of all who died and Faramir's will. He came to help protect you. If he dies and you survive then he did his job. No heroics."  
  
My eyes were beginning to filter light into them again and I could see light and dark shapes. I could see enough to know where I was going. I have lived in Rohan all my life. The torches were like becons in the dark to my eyes as we turned to leave the hall and go up the stairs. I looked at the emerald green form besides me, the only color I could see, "I have no weapon. My sword Grime is chained to the floor of my cell. Is there any way we can retreive it?"  
  
"We have not the time for such trivial pursuits right now Eowyn." Amaden scolded me quietly.  
  
A voice sounded behind me nearly whispering in his sweet malignant tone Wormtongue ran my sword across my stomach, slicing it open in what I knew was a fatal wound, "You have no time for trivial pursuits now, Lady Eowyn." He lowered me gently to the floor cradling my head like a lover.  
  
***  
  
Arghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!! I am gonna go bang my head and tear my hair out over this one until I can sit down and write again. 


	21. Eowyn's redemption: Amaden the Alchemist

You don't think that I should continue this story do you? I mean what would be the point of that? Maybe I should just leave it where it is and let you all stew a little while.  
  
JUST DON'T KILL ME FOR PROCRASTINATION! I LOVE YOU ALL AND I DON'T WANT TO FEEL GUILTY!!!!!!!!  
  
I should really like to thank anyone who pressed me to continue. I was a bit with the doubting as to wether I should or not. I just feel really badly about how the last chapter went so I was reluctant to continue however it seems that a lot of people would like me to so I shall. Me, myself, I thought it was horrible and I basically closed a lot of options to how the story was to go. I know basically what I want to do but it probably isn't the best ending I could have thought up for this story. I just hope that when I get there you will enjoy it.  
  
I bet you are wondering how Eowyn is going to get out of that evil sticky predicament I put her in. Well you will find out right now.  
  
For Edgy Wedgy: How exactly did you find Eowyn to be empty? Okay FOR EVERYONE THEN: I trust you all when you tell me something is wrong with her character but as the author I cannot see it. I'm sure she is missing some key element but I don't know what it is. Does it mess with the story? Id kind of like.... lets say... a detailed analysis. I know I am demanding just forgive me. It is like painting. When you paint you cant see the flaws because you have been staring at them so long you do not notice the little details only the bigger perspective. My vision is hazed... enlighten me as to how to correct my errors. Thank you.  
  
For Noelerin: I do think that I need to look farther into what I am writing when I write it. Still... It would not seem likely that Amaden, yes he is an elf, would have really heard the thoughts of Wormtongue as he snuck up on them. His thoughts were a bit preoccupied with Eowyn. I really do not have the room or opportunities in this story to get in all the little details because this is from the perspective of Eowyn and I want things to be shown the way she remembers them as if she was telling a story. Give me a while. Maybe when I have more skill I will be able to mix action, history, emotion, and thought together in a more fluid way. But for now... be happy! It is my Birthday!  
  
***  
  
Slimy lips pressed to my forehead firmly before their owner stepped back from me to observe his work.  
  
I was dying. A quite familiar but unsettling voice sounded in my head, laughing mirthlessly at me. It said," Your worst suspicions are confirmed." My own sarcastic laughed rung in my ears and zapped my mental wellbeing. "You can die as can any man, woman, or child. You thought you were so strong... look at yourself! Look at your sword protruding from your own gut! Your own sword! How many times did you threaten to kill him with it? -And look what happened to you!"  
  
I retreated from the insanity of my own mind trying to find solace in what was happening around me. The only problem was that there was none to be found.  
  
The Snake mock bowed to me deeply. Deeply enough that he could look at me at face level, "Good night, Lady Eowyn. I assure you it has been a pleasure, but I have no further use for you." A malicious grin rode across his face like galloping white horses over a red hill that were his teeth and his lips. He beckoned to Amaden who looked horror struck.  
  
The pain was agonizing. My guts had been ripped apart. I could hardly pay attention to anything else but I kept my mind as focused as possible on the scene in front of my eyes. I was desperate to see if there was something I could do to prevent more trouble from Wormtongue.... Wait a minute here! Something I could do??? My life blood is flowing onto the ground and all I can think of still is to protect Amaden and Faramir? Sure they are my friends but there is nothing I can do for them.  
  
The Snake could not hurt Amaden with his protection charm but there were things worse than physical pain. Things worse for the soul than physical pain.  
  
Wormtongue beckoned again towards Amaden, "Come with me if you want to protect the heir of the Steward of Gondor, you can do nothing for this whore." The ruthless slime ball strode out of my view while my self- proclaimed guardian continued to stare at me with a painfully furrowed forehead.  
  
Slowly Amaden turned away with closed eyes and followed the Snake. I could no longer see him, but I heard a final sigh of resignation and it tore my heart to pieces.  
  
***  
  
In the few minutes I had left I reflected on what I had accomplished in this short journey of mine. As I thought back on it I first recounted how little effect I had gained in anything. I was useless. I couldn't save my father and I ended up putting both Amaden and Faramir in danger. Not to mention losing my own life. And I lost it for nothing at all.  
  
I held my wound in a effort to retain some of my blood. A vain effort. I was afraid of death. Utterly afraid. For all my huffiness for my cruel stoic emotionless behavior I could be afraid! I was afraid! I still am afraid! Fear is part of the human life. No one cannot evade fear. I was stupid to pretend that I wasn't. It was one of my weaknesses. I wasted life.  
  
In my fear I began to sing little songs to myself. The imminence of death being startlingly relevant to me now was driving my mind crazy. I attempted to block out the pain and consternation the best way my conscious could figure to do it.  
  
The first song repeated its lyrics incessantly inside my head. As much as I tried I couldn't remove it. I could not focus. The words were alien to me. I don't even remember hearing them before. I must have unless a wandering mind is to create random songs. It could be possible.  
  
Two lines to the song stuck in my brain as my blood began to peak through my fingers and dribble down Amaden's cloak again:  
  
Wings of life to evade defeat of purpose.  
  
Life in exchange for a small price to you.  
  
It made me cry that I could not remember the next words to the song. It wasn't so silly for me that I cried. My tears were slipping out for this only because they had been withheld for all the other things that I had restrained myself from crying about.  
  
Wings of life to evade defeat of purpose.  
  
Life in exchange for a small price to you.  
  
I couldn't figure it out. Damn all that walks on two legs! A lump grew in my throat and I held it with a bloodied palm before I began to sob. I was growing weaker. My hand slid down my neck as I rested my dreary eyes.  
  
I should not be afraid anymore! There is no reason to be afraid! I can't stop this from happening!!!!!!  
  
So do not fear, I told myself. My hand grasped reasurringly around the small spherical gem that hung on my copper link necklace.  
  
HOW COULD I BE SO STUPID!?  
  
I shakily unhooked the necklace and the emerald green vial Amaden had given my in the Dark Forbidden shown like a beacon in front of my dreary eyes.  
  
I laughed at myself. And began to sing the lines on the bottle even though the golden script was in elvish:  
  
'Wings of life to evade defeat of purpose.  
  
Life in exchange for a small price to you.  
  
May you find this tool useful.'  
  
I had all I needed in the two lines that I remembered! My hands shook and I barely concealed a screech of pain as I withdrew my sword, the Grime, from my belly gingerly. My stomach began to spurt out most of the remaining life force I had from the very pit of my being and even farther than that. The sword had indeed ran through me nearly entirely. I could tell that no vital organs had been ruptured because if they had I would be dead by now. I had been sitting here ten minutes, alive, because the sword had partially held me together. The only problem was blood loss. Now that the sword was removed I was bleeding profusely and I had but seconds before I would pass out and die.  
  
In those few seconds I had gulped down the contents of the vial while holding my gut together the best I could so that it might mend in proper shape. All I could think of was making sure that my companions got through this all in one piece. Even as I was ingesting the potion I did not thinking about what I was doing. I dribbled a few of the precious drops down my chin and had to lick them up with my tongue. I only hoped that it did not dampen or even possibly negate the intended effect of the potion.  
  
The effects definitely were not negated. I untied the cinch to the robe and pulled it apart to expose my belly. My stomach was shimmering with a golden light as before my eyes a glassy looking substance boiled up from the depths of my gut and coated the wound.  
  
In a matter of seconds it hardened and a second layer of the glassy substance seeped over the gash. This time it was a red tinted liquid that was not as thick as blood or as opaque as I could clearly see my internal anatomy through it. My cuts, abrasions, and bruises also went through a similar transformation to my delight and curiosity.  
  
A third green healing layer seeped out of my skin and pooled above the direct center of the wounds. As soon as this happened my skin began to pull back together as the glass disappeared into it. The glass shrunk and the skin tightened. This was the only painful part of the healing experience as you may probably imagine that it would be. It was over in a matter of about ten seconds however and the golden glow of my skin vanished back into it and my body looked as if it had never been harmed except for a tiny trace of scar left over my gut which I assume remained only because of the few drops of potion that I had dripped down my chin.  
  
I stood up but felt quite dizzy and I could imagine why. Blood had pooled the floors where I had lain. To this very day that I am relating this tale to you the stains of this horror have not completely been removed. A residue of my pain glorifies the tours of the Castle to the curious visitors of other lands. They call it the noble sacrifice of Eowyn. Her sacrifice to save her kingdom.  
  
Bah!  
  
I had sacrificed nothing that hour of my free will. The real courage was yet to come and I was not the noble heroine that I would have liked to have be. In the real world a person cannot triumph on their own. People must work together to reach a common goal. If this is not done then nothing shall ever be accomplished. In the following hours my love for my friends was to soar above any love I had ever felt for any one. Allow me to continue this tale for you at a later time. It is growing late and I am weary at the rememberance of what was and what was to come. 


End file.
